Anti Kitten Birthday Party
by Miss Paint
Summary: Kitten Walker is the well-known schoolmate who is known for creating remarkable birthday parties that seem to get everyone wanting more. The catch? Every year, Kitten creates a list of the top ten 'freaks' who aren't allowed to attend the party. Gar Logan, a transfer, is willing to break tradition, and perhaps get to know this 'Raven Roth' who seems to top the list every year. [AU]
1. One

_August 19 2014. Jump City High._

Gar Logan didn't know what to expect in his first day of high school at Jump City High. He wasn't scared of not fitting in – Gar found himself to be pretty affable and easy-going that making friends wasn't a bother – it was fitting in _too_ much that made him felt anxious. In almost every school he has moved in during the course of his school life, Gar had become too attached to his easy-formed friends that every time his parents announced that they're moving, he became utterly distraught.

Of course, Gar had adjusted to this discomfort year after year, and set out three simple rules that became crucial to his adolescent life. Rule number one, is that Gar shall not make any promises that can greatly affect his life, for promises that Gar have made often turned broken. Rule number two, is that Gar shall not talk about his past, as it brings back memories from the past. The most important, and the one that keeps Gar mostly sane, is rule number three, where Gar shall not engage in romantic relationships, as it often led to both parties being broken.

If Gar followed his three sacred rules during his time at Jump City High, then everything will be alright, and the year will be just like a breeze.

_Locker 31033_, Gar found himself thinking repeatedly, and despite the numerous times of wandering around the corridor, Gar still couldn't locate his locker. _Locker 29830… Locker 29831… How many lockers does this school have?_

Gar knew from school interviews that Jump City High was massive in size however he found himself greatly overwhelmed when he experienced the bright white walls and floor blinding his eyes, distracting him when all he wanted to find his locker.

_Locker 29855, locker 29856…_ Gar was extremely distracted that he couldn't bring himself to notice the big burly guy right in front of him. Unfortunately for him, the guy didn't notice Gar as well, and it ended up in a head crash.

"Ow!" Gar exclaimed, rubbing his fingers on his forehead to relieve the pain.

The guy remained silent, doing the same to his forehead and temple to regain his focus. Finally, after a few moments of pain, the guy started to talk.

"Sorry, I didn't see you! Maybe it's just because you're too short…"

That got Gar's attention – however not in the good way. "Dude! I'm not short!" Gar found himself blurting out. "You're just freakishly tall! And yes, you should be sorry!"

The guy put both his hands to signify that he's harmless. "Hey, no offense or anything! Loosen up, grass stain!" Gar was perplexed by what the guy meant by 'grass stain', and then realized the guy was referring to Gar's dyed green highlights swimming in his blond locks. "I'm Victor Stone."

"Gar Logan."

"New guy, right?" Gar said yes. "What year are you in?"

"Junior year," Garfield found himself saying, and it wasn't long until Victor's face was beaming.

"Me too! Can I see your schedule? Maybe we're in the same homeroom!" Gar nodded, and reached for his pockets where he found his schedule all crumpled up and battered. As he gave it to Victor, he couldn't help but snicker at Victor's look of disgust upon looking at Gar's schedule.

"What's that?" Victor shrieked as he accepted the almost destroyed schedule of Gar's. "First day in a new school and you can't hide your slob-y tendencies?"

Gar rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. "Yeah, I'm not exactly the neatest person on earth. I find everything when I need it though."

Victor nodded, however he wasn't really listening, as he was too engrossed in the new student's schedule. "We have World History together… and that's about it. Oh, we're in the same homeroom!"

"Cool!" Gar grinned, then scowled once he remembered something important. "Yo, where's locker 31033?"

Victor shrugged. "You're in the right path, just keep on walking and you'll find it." Gar said his thanks, and before he could move any longer, the bell rang. "Oh man, the bell! Biology, right? Don't worry, it's right next to my class! Now hurry, grass stain!"

"Dude, stop calling me that!"

* * *

><p>"Punctuality. Never a strong suit for students in the first day." Gar squirmed in his seat; while Gar can be considered tactless at times, he knew that this teacher isn't one to mess with. Gar watched the teacher pick up her board and read from it. "Ah, a new student. Garfield Logan?"<p>

Gar stood up and felt unnerved by the way the teacher scrutinized every detail of his appearance. "Well, I see you're passionate about nature." The teacher mocked, referring to Gar's green highlights and it took everyone a nanosecond to laugh.

"Well," Gar imitated. "I am very passionate about nature. Not only that, chicks dig the hair." Multiple sniggers and snorts clouded the room as the teacher rolled her eyes.

"Introduce yourself, Mr. Logan."

"Gar," Gar corrected, waving his arm. "I'm was born in Africa, and I came here from Steel City." Remembering rule number two, he immediately sat down and noted the puzzled expression of his teacher. Luckily, the teacher did not press it and continued on introducing how her class works. Gar inevitably zoned out, but was pulled back into reality when he felt someone tapping him on the shoulder from behind.

"Psst," a voice said, and Gar turned around, looking at a girl with pigtails and a knack for the colors black and yellow. "You're from Steel City? Which school?"

"Steel City International School," Gar shrugged, hoping that this girl would drop the subject. Fortunately for Gar, the girl just nodded and seemed satisfied.

"I attended school there, when I was in elementary school. Moved after sixth grade. Hey, you're new, and you seem cool, do you want to sit with me in lunch? My friends won't mind, especially Vic–"

The mention of Victor's name caused Gar's ears to perk up. "Victor Stone?" the girl nodded. "I met him, earlier today. By the lockers."

The girl beamed. "Oh, that's great! I'm Karen Beecher, amazing girl extraordinaire. Do you take Art?" Gar shook his head. "AP Language?" Gar shook his head again. "Oh, what about World History?"

"That I take," Gar grinned. "Vic's taking it too, right?"

Karen nodded. "Great, let's sit together. My friends sit there too. Plus, the teacher, is completely lazy. I don't think he'll ever teach in the year."

Gar laughed. "Hey, I have no problem with that!"

"Excuse me," a voice piped out, and Gar turned his focus on the teacher. "Mr. Logan, Ms. Beecher, I know it's the first day of school and we do not do much, but please do not disturb the class."

Karen slightly bowed her head and mumbled an apology, and Gar did the same.

* * *

><p>Karen was right – the History teacher had no incentive to teach, only focusing on his computer. He told off his class to do some 'socializing' and familiarize themselves with the environment. Gar himself was a slacker, but he found it extremely aggravating when someone dismisses their own responsibility.<p>

"Attention, attention!" The whole class turned to a redheaded boy standing on a table and frantically waving his arms. Gar took a second to look, and took note of the teacher's nonchalant attitude as he continued tinkering with his computer. "Who's excited for Kitten's birthday party?" A couple of shouts and catcalls roared across the room. "I know I am! Okay, first things first, if you're in the freak list, then you're not allowed in! Also I just wanted to say that the theme for this year's party is… Horror!"

Almost the whole class burst into cheers and claps. Victor rolled his eyes, as Karen groaned while face-palming herself. Gar watched as the boy performed a backflip off the table, and once he got off, the boy continuously fixed his hair.

"Amazing," Karen said in a sardonic tone, while Victor nodded grimly. Gar had no clue what was happening, and immediately asked.

"What was that about?"

"Man, I forgot you're new," Victor said. "That guy just now? His name is Roy Harper. He used to be our friend, but I guess popularity consumed him."

Gar nodded, however he still didn't comprehend what Roy just said. "Birthday party?"

Karen sighed, placing her cheek on her hand. "Kitten Walker, your stereotypical valley girl, talented at cheerleading and manipulation, but horrible with life, basically. Every year, she hosts this grand birthday party that everyone, for some odd reason, seems to love."

Victor snickered, earning a glare from Karen. "Yeah, Karen, but you go to these parties every year and you _love _them." Victor drawled, putting emphasis on the word 'love'.

"Shut up."

"So who's invited to this grand party?" Garfield asked, and Karen shrugged.

"Everyone in junior year. Kitten loves this grade for some reason. Sometimes she invites other people from other grades."

"So I can go?" Karen nodded, and Victor shrugged.

"You're a junior," Victor stated. "You'll get an invitation."

Gar smiled, happy that an opportunity of making new friends is being given. Victor seemed to notice Gar's happy vibe and groaned. "Grass stain, no. The party's nice, and all, but Kitten's a monster."

Gar shrugged, and said: "How bad can she be, anyway?"

Gar expected a reply of groans and complaints and felt inevitably disturbed when he got silence as a response. Karen and Victor looked at each other uneasily, and back to Gar. "You'll see," Karen said vaguely. Gar was about to press more on the topic however the bell rang, disrupting his intentions. "I have Chemistry now. See you guys in lunch!"

The blond teenager felt a bit uneasy on how Karen and Victor responded his question, but he shrugged it off, and headed off to his Trigonometry class.

* * *

><p><em>August 25 2014. Jump City High.<em>

A week passed by and Gar found himself steadily going with the flow. He has successfully formed a new camaraderie with a bunch of people. He found a friend in Garth, a boy from some island in the Pacific, and while Gar found him a bit too arrogant (especially considering his good looks), Gar concluded that Garth was mostly harmless. Gar also found a friend in Wally West, a quick-witted classmate who seems to be in a rush for everything. A girl named Nicole Weathers (or Kole, as she preferred), whose locker was right next to Gar's, also befriended him, and while Nicole and Gar were not very close, both of them enjoy the occasional chats that occur near the lockers.

Gar took a seat next to Victor and pulled out his lunch bag from his bag and placed it on the table. It was his most prized food in the world – a tofu burger. This captured the attention of Victor's, and before Gar could tell Victor that it's made out of tofu, Victor grabbed the burger, took a huge bite, and scowled deeply afterwards, spitting out whatever he had bitten. "What's this?!"

"A tofu burger! Do you like it?"

"Heck, no!" Victor cried, trying to wipe off the remains off his tongue. "Gross! Why can't you eat an actual burger like an actual human being?"

Gar scoffed. "I'm vegan," Gar explained. "I don't do the whole meat thing."

Karen nodded, taking interest in Gar's veganism. "Are you a vegan because of health or moral reasons?"

"Moral reasons," Gar said. "I just, have this bond with animals, you know? Eating them would be so weird. It would be cannibalism, to me or something."

"Well with the way your hair looks and how you're eating plants, I'd say you're performing cannibalism right now!" Victor retorted, opening a can of Coke to rinse out his mouth.

"Hey!" Gar exclaimed. "Don't diss the hair! The hair's cool. And meat is disgusting! How can you stand the sight of–"

Suddenly, the sight of pink crumpled paper caught Gar's attention. "Hey," Gar said, pointing at the pink ball of paper. "What's that?"

"Oh, this?" Victor said, picking up the crumpled paper that was in front of him. "Nothing. Just some weird list from Kitten."

Karen cleared her throat. "Definitely weird. Gar, when I say Kitten invites everyone in junior year, I don't mean everyone. Every year, she creates a list of people who she deems as 'freaks', revoking their access from coming to the party, ever. It's brutal, it's rude, but usually the people listed don't do anything but shrug."

"Sad," Victor commented, scrutinizing the paper. "It's like they're so used too Kitten's tyrannical personality."

"Can I read it?"

Karen shrugged, but she nodded, and Gar took the paper and opened it up. "Have fun," Victor said in a mocking voice.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Jump City High's Top 10 Junior Freaks 2014<strong>_

_**List made by: Kitten W.**_

_**10. Nicole Weathers  
><strong>__Or, to friends and loved ones, Kole. To me, she is the pink-headed ice-loving freak of the school. She's definitely landed a spot on this list, for two reasons. Reason number one, is that her hair is pink! PINK! She claims she didn't dye it, and after tremendous stalking on Facebook and looking at former childhood pictures of herself, it's true, she was BORN with pink hair! I love pink, obviously, but that's really creepy. And really undeserving of her. If anyone had to be born with pink hair it should be me, of course! Now, reason number two, is that Kole REALLY loves ice, I'm not exaggerating on this one. Like, literally, she usually holds some kind of ice cube, or is seen munching one. Freak._

_**9. Mas y Menos**_

_I'm not sure if Mas y Menos is one person or two people. These twin freaks are literally inseperable! Obviously, I know. I've tried separating them once, and they totally gone cray. Freaks._

_**8. Mikron O'Jeneus**_

_Okay, I'm all in for unique names and if it helps my future child stands out (in a good way!) then so be it. But hear this. Who in the world names their child 'Mikron'? Like, were his parents some techno freaks that couldn't stop caressing their own microscopes or something? Anyway, obviously there's a reason he's on the list, other than his unfortunate upbringing. Once, he initiated this school-wide 'program' where he altered everyone's lockers to act as a portal to classes. And while the idea is cool, the guy with the idea is not. I LITERALLY freaked when I found out he put a dead rat in my own locker. Freak!_

_**7. Nicole Diaz/Jennifer Hex/Jinx/Pink Freak**_

_Well first things first I honestly don't know her name! Like, I heard it's Nicole Diaz, but teachers call her Jennifer Hex? Some student even call her Jinx. Um, so what exactly is your name, Pink Freak?! She doesn't look bad, and she's very athletic, something that could benefit the cheerleading team. The problem with her is that she's a FREAK! Also what's wrong with freaks and tainting my love for the color pink?! Pink Freak dyes her hair pink, and she wears pink cat-like contacts which gives me nightmares like every time I see her. What's worse is that she's known for bad luck. Literally, I've heard this story where she touched someone on the shoulder and the next day that someone broke his back. Freak, and trust me when I say this, don't go anywhere near her._

_**6. Antonia Monetti**_

_Already thrown off by the previous people in the list? Well don't go just yet. This is Antonia Monetti, and I've met her in seventh grade, and she was like, such a cool girl! She had this accent and I think it's British or something, and I tried to befriend her (I know, shocking!) but being the freak she is, she turned me down! …Whatever. She's a freak, I don't care._

_**5. Kori Anders**_

_I know Kori Anders is in the cheerleading group and if we follow stereotypes here, it automatically means that we're besties! Haha, so wrong! Yeah she's okay-looking, but she's so annoying! Way too innocent to be fun and way too naïve to even understand that she's not my friend at all! She follows weird traditional events too. It's so dumb, it's like having my grandma repeat all her superstitions again! Anyway, and she loves mustard so much, she drinks a bottle of it. Freak._

_**4. Joey Wilson**_

_Trust me, he's cute. But he never speaks. That makes him a freak._

_**3. Billy Numerous**_

_Same with those freaky twins in the list it's like Billy Numerous is a twin or triplet and is INSEPERABLE but the only thing that's sad is that he's NOT a twin or anything. But he talks to himself a lot and with no one else, except teachers and some students. It's so sad, like if you want friends that much go make some! Is he really that narcissistic, like, there's nothing to love about him anyway… Freak._

_**2. Gnarkk**_

_I literally, do NOT know what his real name is and he only speaks one word, which is Gnarkk. I'VE NEVER heard him speak, I don't even know how he even got to this school? FREAK!_

_**1. Raven Roth**_

_CLOSE YOUR EYES! Wait; OPEN THEM! You must see the HORROR, the TERROR! Raven Roth! Jump City High's number one freak. It's stupid; she has this really pale complexion, even paler than Antonia's, and purple hair! And matching dark purple eyes. She's so dark and broody, I can't even – whatever. To match her creepy looks, she talks in this scary monotone and glares at everyone. She's basically ANTI SOCIAL. Why? I literally don't know; don't ask me. She's usually found lurking in the darkest corner of the library, probably performing some cult ritual or some stuff. Stay away from her. She. Is. A. Freak._

_**There you go! 2014's list of freaks in Jump City High! And you know the drill, in a few weeks is my birthday, get ready! All juniors are invited, however other grades that receive an invitation can attend too. So literally, if you're my friend, and everyone is my friend… Everyone can go! Except the people written on this list, obviously.**_

_**Look forward for another invitation about the partay!**_

_**Toodles! Kitten.**_

* * *

><p>"Kole?" Gar asked, not sure how to take the information that his newly formed friend is considered a 'freak' by the school's queen bee. He also found it uncomfortable to process that Kitten could be so heartless over trivial things. While Gar knew he wouldn't do anything major, he felt guilty just sitting there and looking at the list.<p>

"Petty, right?" Karen said, interrupting Gar's thoughts. "Anyway, you're not on the list, so chill."

The way Karen brushed off the topic of the list bothered Gar. "But, Kole's not a freak. I'm sure none of these people are freaks. Just misunderstood, is all."

"Yo grass stain, why are you so adamant about this? Relax. The people on the list don't mind either, so I don't see why you should," Victor pointed out. "Besides, you don't really know the people in this list."

"Kole's my–"

"Yeah, yeah," Victor dismissed Gar with his hand. "Look at Kole."

Victor pointed to another table, where Kole and a large man who Gar did not recognize was conversing, seemingly bliss about the whole world. "They don't mind," Victor said. "So you shouldn't as well."

Gar dropped the subject, but it still didn't ease the troubled state of his mind.

* * *

><p>"Hi!" A shrill voice came, and Gar closed his locker, only to find out it was Kitten. "I'm Kitten Walker," Gar nodded, hesitant to make any more contact. "You must've heard of me, right?"<p>

"Right." Gar said, though his voice didn't express any emotion whatsoever.

"You're new, right? Garfield Logan. I heard you're a junior, but I must confirm it myself."

"Yeah," Gar agreed. "I'm a junior." Kitten put on a big grin on her face, showing off her pearly white teeth that were similar to the bright walls of the school, and it threw him off.

"Great!" Kitten reached out for her purse, taking out a pink envelope decorated with shiny stickers. She held out the envelope for Gar to take, and when Gar hesitantly received it, her grin widened, almost resembling a cackle. "I hope we can be great friends, Gar. See you in English!"

And with that, she turned on her heel and strutted down the hall, leaving Gar scowling to himself. "Got an invitation, didn't you?"

Gar recognized the voice behind him, and the fact that he knew exactly who was talking made his stomach drop. He turned around, and grimly nodded. "Hey, Kole."

While Gar's expression was somber and forlorn, Kole's expression was bright and exuberant – nowhere identical to Gar's. "I was on the list on sophomore year too. So I came in freshman year. The theme back then was Winter Wonderland, and that's when Kitten realized she made a mistake inviting me." Gar found it inspiring how Kole said all of that without a dejected ring to it. "Nevertheless, the party was fun. You should go, Gar!"

Gar shifted uncomfortably in his place. "I don't know, I mean… I feel kind of bad about…"

"The list?" Kole inquired, and Gar nodded. "Don't be! Really, if you're placing yourself in another person's problems then you won't be able to enjoy your own self." The bell rang, and Kole looked at her watch. "I have Art now," Kole said, looking back from her watch to Gar. "I'll see you later!" Kole waved, and headed off the opposite direction.

Gar now had English, and while he didn't have any problem with the class, it was the students that made him uneasy. In particular, it was Kitten who made him uneasy. Taking a deep breath, he went inside the class, forcing himself to feel better about his unexplained guilt. Gar took a seat next to his friend, Isaiah Crockett. Isaiah nodded his head towards Gar as a sign of hello, and Gar reciprocated, doing the same with a smile.

"Mrs. Prince isn't here yet," Isaiah pointed out, shaking his head. "She's always late."

Gar smiled cheekily, and shrugged. "That's not a bad thing. More free time!"

Isaiah rolled his eyes, and once the chatter of the room started building up, the English teacher walked in the room, a pile of paper resting on her forearms. She placed in on her desk, and wiped the little sweat that was trickling on her forehead. "Sorry I'm late class, had to do some photocopying," Mrs. Prince then placed the stack of papers on the first row of the class. "Give the paper out, thank you."

Gar looked at the paper in front of him. _Essay Preparation_.

"Alright, class, pipe down," the teacher began. "After tremendous discussion of our summer reading book, it's time for an essay. You will be writing on the purpose on why Truman Capote wrote _In Cold Blood_. On the sheet, you can see there are sections for your essay planning. Start on your thesis, and continue on. Remember that along the way use quotations to back up your sources, but only do so in the body, neither in the opening nor the conclusion. Questions?"

The class was silent.

Mrs. Prince nodded, seemingly pleased with herself. "Excellent. Let's discuss our topic. Why did Truman Capote write _In Cold Blood_?"

A girl with short hair raised her hand. "I think he wanted to showcase the true events of the Clutter family."

"Yes, but _why_? Capote himself wasn't involved in the case, why would he be suddenly interested?"

"Um, hello?" An ear-pitched tone rang throughout the class, and Gar instantly knew it belonged to Kitten. "Mrs. Prince, this isn't a psychology class. Capote wrote the book because he wanted to. Like, if you asked me why I painted my nails pink today, it's because I wanted to! No psychology behind that. Anyway, why are we reading this book? It's so _scary_."

A small chuckle could be heard in the back of the room, and everybody turned their head around. Gar noticed that it was a girl wearing a blue hoodie. He had no idea who she was, but apparently Kitten wasn't fond of her.

"What was that, goth?" Kitten taunted, her attention fully focused on the blue girl. "Can you, like, shut up? You've been doing a great job of that this whole time!"

"I don't know," the girl sneered in return, cocking her head to Kitten's direction. "Maybe the fact that your brain is still defunct after all these years amuse me, that's all."

"Why, you –"

"Alright, girls, that's enough," While Mrs. Prince was successful in stopping any more fights; it didn't stop the two girls from deathly staring at each other. "Now, any more opinions? Jason, what about you?"

"Hey," Gar whispered, elbowing Isaiah on his side. "Who was that?"

"Who?" Gar jerked his head to the girl, who was now looking down on her paper and scribbling furiously. "Oh that. Raven Roth."

"Raven Roth?" Gar repeated, furring his eyebrows. "As in, number one in Kitten's freak list?"

Isaiah nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

_Interesting_, Gar wanted to say, but instead he found himself saying: "Nothing."

Isaiah raised his eyebrow at Gar, but to Gar's relief, he dropped the subject and picked up his pen, doodling on the side of his worksheet.

Gar found himself drowning in his thoughts. _Who is this Raven Roth_? _What makes her so disliked by Kitten, and possibly the entire school community? How does she feel about Kitten?_ The way her hoodie implanted a shadow on her face, leaving nothing but the hint of her appearance, made Gar more intrigued than more. How her fingers delicately held the pen, as if she was writing on air. Watching Raven's scowl made Gar ask himself a question:

_Does she ever smile?_

Gar took note at the soft frown that Raven had on her face, as she flipped the page to continue writing her essay planner. He suddenly felt a pang of dedication rushing through his veins, and as each second of him staring at Raven passed, his curiosity only peaked up.

_I must find out_.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Holy mother of cowbells.**

**I'm in complete shock. If you followed this story before, you would've known that I scrapped this idea and completely abandoned it. However, something happened earlier today. You see, I was reading a story in FictionPress (it's called 'A Textbook Case', google 'a textbook case fictionpress' to read!) and the author moved the ending to LiveJournal. I was so excited to continue, but it turns out the author set her LiveJournal so that only the people she added can read the story. She says herself that she adds anyone who comments on her posts, but the catch? She hasn't updated her LiveJournal since 2012. It made me feel so horrible. All my excitement growing and then it just deflated, and it really let me down?**

**And then I saw my FictionPress account, and then I went to my FanFiction account (here) and I read my previous messages, and there was this certain user who asked me to update this story... Approximately two years ago. Embarrassing, but anyway, I replied to her (about a month later) and replied that the next chapter is coming up 'soon', even though it didn't, at all. **

**Putting into my account about my feelings about the FP story and that PM I received approx. two years ago, I felt really bad. **

**I stopped writing because I thought I wasn't good at it. And I probably am not! But I do not give up, and I am willing to give myself a little push and a bit more practice in writing.**

**_Enough about my feelings. Please review and leave feedback. My writing is extremely rusty (I haven't wrote at all in ages!) plus I forgot where I was going with this story, so I had to rewrite it. _**

**_If you want, on my profile is a link of the previous chapter of AKBP before I took it down and rewrote it. If you have the time, please pinpoint how different my writing is from before and now._**

**_Thank you so much! I will update, and I promise this. I feel bad enough already._**

**_~Irey West-Wayne (formerly PolarPurple)_**

**_PS. The user who messaged me is purpleraven23. Thank you so much!_**


	2. Two

_August 26 2014. Jump City High._

Gar was generally a determined person; if he wanted something, then he will do anything to get it. Whether if it required him to anything emotionally draining or physically drastic, Gar wouldn't stop unless he gets what he wants. However one thing that stopped him from his determination was his fear. If he wanted something but was too afraid of the consequences, he wouldn't try to accomplish his wishes.

That's how he felt about Raven. While he is undeniably attracted to her enigmatic aura, Kitten's freak list constantly pestered him in his mind. Gar had heard from others that Kitten had managed to install a water slide from the top of her mansion. In addition, Kitten was under the process of decorating her house to suit the theme of a haunted house. After seeing the leaked pictures of her house online, Gar had already convinced himself that he needed to go to Kitten's birthday party – for the fun, of course.

"Getting ready for the party!" The caption read.

Approaching Raven, Gar felt, would hinder his possibilities of going to Kitten's party. Everyone, including his friends Karen and Victor, was already certain that they would be attending the party. To be the only one, besides the ones on the list, who didn't attend the party would be very disconcerting, and it would only attract bad attention to himself.

Gar's schedule was more or less satisfying to have. Having two Advanced Placement classes related to history was challenging, but Gar liked History too much to care. Initially he asked for both World History and US History, however the headmaster denied him and told him to choose one. Gar chose World History, however he still wanted to take another history-based course. To fulfill his request, the headmaster placed Gar in Art History. While Gar's art skills were non-existent, Gar liked looking at Art enough to take a course related to its history.

Art History was already one of Gar's favorite subjects. He liked the ambience of the class; lighthearted and seemingly close-knit. The teacher, Mr. Simms, was also out-going and laid-back. It was a class that Gar felt very comfortable to be in, and he felt extremely grateful to the headmaster for putting him in the class.

"Alright class," Mr. Simms mused, successfully capturing the attention of his students. "Has anyone ever seen the actual Mona Lisa in real life?"

A boy with oversized glasses raised his hand. "I don't get the hype, though. It's very… Small."

"Agreed," Mr. Simms said. "Compared to other major artworks, the Mona Lisa can be seen as underwhelmingly small. I think it's psychological, though. All the hype surrounding the painting might have led the people to believe that it's a majorly large painting, when really, it isn't. It's just about 30 by 21 inches. Nevertheless, the story behind the Mona Lisa is very intriguing. Anyone can tell me who the subject of the Mona Lisa is?"

"Lisa Gherardini," one student piped up, seemingly confident with his answer. "I read somewhere off the internet that a margin note was found in a book. It says that Leonardo was working on a portrait of the lady."

"I thought it was a self portrait." Another female student said, which prompted a scoff from the previous student.

"Then why is it called 'Mona Lisa'? If it was a self portrait, it would be called 'Mona Leo'!"

This caused a roar of laughter across the class, including the teacher. The female student ducked her head in response, but was quick to respond. "No, like, I've seen it in the internet, Mona Lisa's face matches Leonardo da Vinci's self-portrait."

"Marisol's got a point, Jacob. Lillian Schwartz once conducted a thesis that Mona Lisa was based on Leonardo's self-portrait." Mr. Simms explained. "However, the only problem with that was that maybe the picture of Leonardo da Vinci Lillian used wasn't exactly a self-portrait. Most historians believe that the sitter is Lisa Gherardini, and that the painting was made for celebration."

"What do you believe in, sir?"

"Lisa Gherardini seems most plausible – but I still hold the inkling that the painting was made with distant memories of Leonardo da Vinci's mother," Mr. Simms responded. "Even so, if one of the questions in the AP exam is 'Who is the Mona Lisa based on', I'd say you answer Lisa Gherardini, because many theories have been made to back it up. Now, the Mona Lisa is famous for many things, and I would love to go on and on about it, however time is running and we have many topics to cover.

"For your homework, I'd like all of you to individually create a presentation, about the Mona Lisa. However it's not the general history of the Mona Lisa. I've got a bucket here filled with prompts, and I will walk around class, and you lot will draw a piece of paper from the bucket. Whatever you get is what you will be presenting on. Now, there will be no changing topics or whatnot, because I will be immediately recording your topics once you've chosen them."

Mr. Simms picked up the bucket from his desk and headed for the first row of the class. "This presentation shall not exceed five minutes - anymore and points will be deducted by fifty percent," Mr. Simms instructed. "Amy, your topic is… The medium used on the Mona Lisa, correct? Very good."

Once he got to the back of the class, where Gar was sitting, Gar immediately plunged his hand in the bucket and unrolled the piece of paper which had his prompt. "The L.H.O.O.Q," Gar read aloud, which caused some students to giggle. "What?"

"Gar, you'll see in your project," By then, the bell rang and everyone immediately packed their bags and bolted out of their chairs. Before the first person could leave however, Mr. Simms had another announcement. "Before all of you leave, I'd like to say. This is due next class! Late submissions will not be accepted and will result in a score of zero. That's all, you can all leave."

Mr. Simms announcement was followed by mutters and groans that eventually faded as everyone evacuated the room. Gar now had study hall, and he had no idea what to do next. He took his time in packing up his things, and he was now left alone with Mr. Simms, and a redheaded girl who he never talked to. The redheaded girl walked up to Mr. Simms with an apprehensive look on her face.

"I have a question, Mr. Simms."

"Yes, what is it, Kori?"

However before Gar could eavesdrop any longer, he left the room, and headed for the library. So far, Gar usually spent his study halls in the cafeteria gaming on his phone, but Gar decided that finishing his project early would be best. Tossing his books into his locker, Gar headed to the library.

Once Gar entered the library, a peculiar sense of feeling struck him. The library was huge, however it was more or less isolated, with a few students reading a book or using the computer. Gar never liked reading, and preferred listening instead. Because of this, Gar usually spent his time studying by making his computer read an online version of his textbook out loud. Gar moved towards the computer by the window. He noticed that there was an unfinished Google Doc on the screen, however he simply minimized it and started on his research.

It took a while but Gar finally understood why the class giggled when he said 'L.H.O.O.Q'. If said out loud, it almost sounds like a French phrase which translates into: '_This woman has a hot ass_'. Once he understood, Gar couldn't stop laughing to himself. However, a cough can be heard behind him, and fearing that it was the librarian, Gar turned around and began a string of apologies.

"I'm sorry I laughed, it will never happen again, I just read something funny, but I know that's not an excuse, yes I disturbed the library, I'm sorry, I really am, please forgive me, don't kick me out–"

"Can you pipe down?" The girl said, and it took a second for Gar to realise that she wasn't the librarian. The girl's red bangs were slightly covering her aggravated expression, however the rest of her hair was black and was kept in a ponytail. "You're using my computer."

"Oh," Gar said dumbfoundedly, before facing back to the computer and re-opening the window he minimized earlier. "Is this yours?"

"Yes," the girl seethed. "First of all, did you look at the document?"

"What– no?"

"Your hesitant reply is very reassuring. Did you modify the document, at all?"

"Why would I?!"

"Look, green-hair," the girl said, her crisp foreign accent. "I will not have anyone interfere with my grades in Geography. You may be new, so I maybe should be a little less harsh on you, but new student or not, everyone must know I'm not one to mess with–"

"Wait," Gar interrupted. "Geography? I'm not taking Geography! I'm working on my Art History project! And besides, I thought no one was using this computer, so I took it. Sorry!"

The girl seemed to relax at this and she gave Gar a small smile. "No, I apologize for my attitude. You minimized the window earlier, correct?" Gar nodded. "I was in the bathroom. Look, since you're using a Word document, I'll move to the next computer. Log out from my Google account, though."

Gar did what he was told to do, and once he was finished, the girl was satisfied and took the seat next to Gar. She turned to Gar and began introducing herself. "I'm Toni Monetti. I'm from New Zealand."

Toni's name seemed very familiar, but Gar couldn't place it. To his surprise, Toni seemed to read his mind and said: "I'm from the freak list, if that counts."

Gar, unsure of how to respond, simply nodded and muttered an 'okay'. Toni looked at him expectantly and after a few moments Gar realized that he hasn't introduced himself to her. "Oh, I'm Gar Logan."

"Where are you from?"

"Steel City."

Toni raised her eyebrows, and crossed her arms. "Really? You don't look like it." This made Gar cross his arms in return, and Toni noticed his defensive attitude. "Hey, no offense or anything. People from Steel City look more… Work-oriented. No offense, again."

"Oh."

Disappointed by his lack of response, Toni shifted her seat and changed the topic. "Are you going to Kittens birthday party?"

Surprised by the sudden topic change, Gar awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. "You shouldn't," Toni mused. "I mean, go if you want, but you seem like the type of person who would break against tradition."

Gar was beginning to get aggravated by how Toni constantly evaluated who Gar was as a person. "I have to work, on my project." He said, hoping that this would stop the conversation between them. Fortunately it did, but not before Toni apologizes for her attitude. The rest of the period was followed by disconcerting silence that made the two itching for a word to be spoken, however the only sound that followed was the loud clangor of the bell.

* * *

><p>"That's wonderful, Garth! I'm so proud of you!"<p>

Setting his lunch at the table and grabbing a seat, Gar looked at his table mates with a confused look on his face. "Why are we proud of Garth again?"

"Oh, finally, you're here!" Karen exclaimed. "Where were you?"

Gar waved his hand as a sign of dismissal. "Was held back by Mr. Light in Trig. Doesn't matter - why are we proud of Garth?"

"I got accepted to the national swimming competition," Garth says, a big grin beaming on his face. "It's on November, but I've to practice…"

Karen scoffed. "You're practically _the _water. You don't need half the practice you think you need."

Garth blushed at Karen's comment, and Gar eyed him suspiciously. While Gar and Garth were friends, he still thought that Garth's persona around people was fake and that he was only trying to draw attention to himself. "Nonsense, Karen…"

"Yeah," Gar said, his voice a pitch higher as if he was mocking the two. "You don't need to practice, _at all_…"

While Karen glared at Gar's tone, Garth was oblivious to Gar's subtle hostility. "Thanks, Gar," Garth said. "But I want to practice. I think I'll spend most of my time either studying or swimming."

"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard that came out of your mouth," Victor said, who took a seat next to Garth and was followed by Wally who took a seat next to Vic. "So I take you're in some swimming competition or something?"

Garth nodded while Gar rolled his eyes. "Yeah, national championship. Wish me luck?"

Wally took a bite of his sandwich and snorted. "You don't need the luck!" Wally said, his food visibly showing while he was talking. Karen seemed to be extremely bothered by this and asked Wally for proper table manners, only to get Wally's tongue stuck out as a response.

"Where were you guys?" Gar asked, and Victor shrugged.

"Physics, damn boring. Love the subject but hate the teacher."

Karen pursed her lips before opening them again to talk. "Ms. Rouge? Oh I hate her – had her for Robotics club last year."

Victor nodded grimly and took a sip from his soda can. "I was in French," Wally said. "Teacher got mad because someone kept on saying 'L.H.O.O.Q'."

This caused Gar to snigger. "I have that as my theme for my project in Art History, found out what it meant earlier today."

"What does it mean?" Garth asked, only to be dismissed by Wally.

"Google it," Wally said. "Anyway, Jinx hit me with her textbook today."

"Yeah, we saw," Karen said. "Same English class, remember? Anyway, for you freaks that don't take the same English block as we do," Karen pointed at Gar and Garth. "Mrs. Prince told the class to do some 'peer marking' for the essays and Wally was paired with Jinx. Ended up badly because in the end Wally made her so angry that she banged her textbook against the back of his head.

"She wouldn't listen to my criticism!" Wally cried out, and Victor rolled his eyes.

"Last time I checked, '_Can you blow my whistle, baby, whistle, baby_', isn't constructive criticism." Victor retorted, which led to the table laughing and Wally petulantly crossed his arms.

"Jinx…" Gar asked. "Isn't she one of the people in the list?"

Wally narrowed his eyes at Gar, crossing his arms tighter. "Jinx's not a freak. Misunderstood, is all."

Victor snorted. "So are the people in the list, man!"

"Okay," Wally said. "Some of the people _are_ freaks though. Like Billy Numerous? That guy aggravates me to no end. Mikron? Kind of like a demented version of you, Vic."

"Hey," Karen interrupted. "Stop it. Although I have to admit. Mikron freaks me out… A lot." Karen's posture changed into one that reflected discomfort. "Do you remember freshman year?"

The table was clouded with a bunch of 'yes' except from Gar, who said 'no. "I forgot you're new!" Karen said, and she raised her hands to visualize her point. "Alright, in freshman year…"

Karen went on about how Mikron was extremely obsessed about mechanics and inventing, to the point where he often broke into school grounds at night just to see what he can build. At the time, he had a fetish for dung beetles, something Karen greatly abhorred. Despite Mikron's love for dung beetles, he still didn't have the courage to touch them or go near them. To resolve this fear, Mikron created a small invention that represented the dung beetle. Instead of feeding on feces like an actual dung beetle would, Mikron's invention was made so that it would feed on lint. Mikron was getting more and more obsessed with his invention that he created more, and in the end there was too much robotic beetles that it got into almost everyone's clothings.

"It was so horrible!" Karen wailed out after her explanation. Garth, who was sitting to her right immediately gave her a pat on the back, and Victor offered her a bite of his sandwich, to which Karen refused. "There were so many on my clothes."

"So, how did this fiasco end?" Gar asked, watching Karen fiddling with one of her pigtails.

"In the end Mikron was getting scared of the whole robotic beetles," Karen explained. "He cancelled the invention and never opened up the case ever since."

"Okay," Gar concluded, crumpling his wrapper paper that protected his tofu burger. "So Kitten was right, Mikron _is_ a freak."

"Not only that," Wally piped in, taking the crumpled paper from Gar's hands and tossing it around. "He has a _major_ crush on Kitten. Every year he's seen begging on his knees for Kitten to remove him on the freak list. Really sad, really pathetic. I don't like him."

As the whole table nodded in agreement, the bell rang, and everyone in the cafeteria began shuffling around and grabbing their bags, heading to their next classes. "Study hall!" Wally exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. "I love my schedule! See you!" With that, Wally rushed out of the cafeteria, ambiguously heading to some place in the school.

"Art," Karen scowled, and Garth hummed in agreement. "Can't believe I slacked on my VPA credits! Whatever. I'll see you guys later. Come, Garth, let's go."

Gar watched as Karen and Garth plodded out of the cafeteria. "Well, I'm going," Gar announced, waving a farewell to Victor, who was fumbling to get his Calculus textbook out of his bag. "See you!"

* * *

><p><em>August 27 2014. Jump City High.<em>

"...And, for some reason the Mona Lisa is still safe, no matter how many attacks it has been through. Thank you for listening to my presentation."

The whole class clapped out of respect, and the girl who had presented smiled to herself in satisfaction as she removed her thumbdrive from the computer and went back to her seat. Mr. Simms stood in the corner nodding slightly, and he scribbled a few notes on his notepad. After he was finished, he cleared his throat and pointed at the redheaded girl Gar noticed after class the other day. The girl smiled, and walked to the front, setting up her presentation.

"Good morning, friends!" The girl said, her voice filled with cheerfulness. Looking around the class, Gar noticed that the class's atmosphere was nowhere similar to the girl's positive attitude. Almost everyone either had their hands on their cheeks, were busy doing something else, or worse, sleeping. The girl, however, remained oblivious to her classmate's unenthusiastic reaction, and continued on with her presentation. "My name is Kori Anders, and I will now explain the painting medium of the Mona Lisa! The Mona Lisa was painted on the poplar and…"

Despite Kori's clear voice that rang in Gar's ears, Gar couldn't help but be uninterested by her presentation. He diverted his attention to his pencil case, which was a long green zipper that behaved as a pencil case when zipped up. Gar took out his few stationary out of the pencil case and started unzipping it. Gar was extremely occupied by his pencil case, until a boy's deep voice interrupted his activity and Kori's presentation.

"Yo Kori, can you stop? It's getting really boring," the boy sniggered at his own remark, and a couple of students in the room laughed as well. "Really, man, so damn boring."

"Baran," Mr. Simms interrupted, his voice getting scarily serious. "Kori still has three minutes to go, please do not interrupt."

"Sorry, Simms," Baran said as he rolled his eyes. "Hey, Kori?"

"Yes?"

"Stop presenting. So boring, do us all a favor and learn to present in a not boring way."

"And how do I do the presenting in the method you consider 'not boring'?" Kori asked, putting up finger quotes. Gar could tell that Kori was getting slightly irritated by Baran's rude attitude, but she was holding it in.

"Hmm, I don't know," Baran said, tapping his finger on his chin with a mischievous gleam. "Go back to your weird island home, and do us a favor and not _exist_ here."

"Baran!" Mr. Simms scolded, but no one paid much attention to him, as all eyes were diverted to Baran and Kori.

"Bye!" Baran waved in a derisive manner, and he abruptly grabbed a bottle of mustard from his bag. Fortunately for Baran, his seat was in the front row, which gave him perfect opportunity to attack Kori. He pointed the tip of the mustard bottle at Kori, and began squeezing it, which landed on Kori's purple dress. A small portion of the class laughed out loud, while the majority kept quiet. Kori cried out in distress, and started flailing her hands. This action led to some mustard landing on Mr. Simms's desk, which caused him to intervene in the attack.

"Baran!" Mr. Simms exclaimed, as he walked towards the center of the class. "Principal's office, now!" Baran shrugged as he slung his bag over his shoulders, mouthing the words 'worth it' to his friends, who sniggered in return. He exited the class, and Gar had a strong inkling that Baran wasn't heading to the principal's office. Mr. Simms sighed in distress, and turned his focus on Kori, who had her head bowed down and was strangely quiet . He approached her slowly, and once he was in her range, Mr. Simms awkwardly patted Kori on the back, muttering a few consoling words. Seconds later, Kori lifted up her head, which was covered in mustard and tears. She opened up her mouth to say something, but instead turned around and left the class. Mr. Simms lightly groaned, and took a tissue at the corner of his table to wipe off the mustard that landed on his desk. After he was done, he picked up his notepad and began scribbling.

"Marisol, you're up next," Mr. Simms announced, and Gar was astounded on how easy Mr. Simms changed the subject. Mr. Simms was always laid-back, but didn't he have boundaries as well? Gar looked at Marisol, who was also staring dumbfoundedly. "Come on, Mar, we don't have much time."

Except, they do have time, as there was twenty more minutes of class time. Marisol snorted and crossed her arms obstinately. "Mr. Simms, Kori was bullied out of this classroom! Aren't you going to find her?" Marisol asked, and Mr. Simms looked away. "And who knows if Baran went to the principal's office! Mr. Simms, you have to take things like these seriously!"

"Marisol," Mr. Simms chided. "My choices are driven by my will to teach this class. If you have forgotten, this is an Advanced Placement class–"

"Still doesn't excuse your attitude of not showing initiative when your class includes a case of bullying!"

"Marisol, if you do not get up and present, you will immediately get a zero on this project!"

The whole class became eerily silence upon Mr. Simms's rebuke. Marisol pursed her lips in anger, but said nothing as she grabbed her stuff and prepared her presentation. Gar couldn't help but notice the vicious behavior Marisol showed as she bumped into everything in her sight. Gar diverted his eyes to Mr. Simms, who was looking blankly at his notepad. Sighing, Gar bowed slumped against his chair and continued toying with his pencil case the whole period.

* * *

><p>The bell rang and the whole class silently stood up and left. Gar took note on Marisol's still angry expression, and was particularly surprised when Marisol intentionally bumped shoulders with Mr. Simms, who didn't do anything but sigh quietly. Since he had study hall next, Gar took a trip to the restroom.<p>

Heading out of the restroom, Gar heard a distinct wail that echoed near the men's restroom. After looking around, Gar concluded that it came from the janitor's closet. He turned the knob on the closet's door, and it wasn't locked. Hesitantly, he pushed the door open and was shocked when he saw Kori sitting on the stool, furiously wiping tears away from her face. She looked up from the floor, and her expression slightly changed.

"Are you here to make the fun of me as well?" Kori asked quietly, and Gar shook his head abundantly.

"No, no," Gar said, walking inside of the closet and closing the door behind him. "In fact, I wanted to see if you were okay." This was a lie, but looking at Kori's heart aching expression, he'd rather tell a lie to make her feel better. "Are you okay?"

"What is your name?"

"Gar Logan," Gar said, and paused before speaking again. "Kori, right?"

_Duh_, Gar thought to himself, _obviously she's Kori!_

Kori nodded, and sniffled. "I don't understand, the wrong I have done, for I have none!" Kori confessed. "Classmate Baran Flinders decides to attack me out of nowhere, and no one has helped me!"

"I'm sorry," Gar said slowly, unsure of what to do next, so he stepped closer to Kori and rubbed her shoulder consolingly. "Baran's a jerk. Don't waste your time thinking about jerks."

To Gar's surprise, Kori smiled and nodded. "You're correct… You were the only one who cared about me to see how I was doing. Thank you, friend Gar!"

_Friend Gar_? Gar thought to himself, but before he could react, Kori launched his arms on him, initiating a bone-crushing bear hug that left him out of breath. After a few seconds which felt like an excruciatingly long time period to Gar, Gar regained his breath and spoke again. "Marisol wanted to help you, but…"

"Classmate Marisol is not here, is she?" Kori pointed out. Gar nodded meekly, hesitant of doing something else. "But I will thank her once I see her. Friend Gar, for the expression of my gratitude, please have dinner with me tonight!"

Gar paled, and felt his hands sweating profusely. "Like - like a date?"

"No, no," Kori dismissed Gar by waving one of her hands. "My parents have the shift of the late times, and my sister is out of the town. I invited my friend over as well, please invite anyone you'd like too! We will be having the soup of friendship!"

"The soup of friendship…" Gar repeated before shaking his head. "Look, it's a nice offer but– wait, aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"English," Kori shrugged. "I will head there after I get a reply from you, friend Gar."

"I, uh," Gar said, uncertain of what to say. Gar didn't exactly want to spend time with Kori, knowing that she wasn't exactly what normal people would define as normal. "I'll think about it." Gar finally said, and Kori nodded happily.

"Let us exchange the numbers! I will text you the address of my home." Kori said, pulling out her phone from her pocket. Before she could ask Gar for his number, Gar spoke up.

"I don't have a working sim card yet," Gar said. "I have a Facebook, though, send a message there."

Kori hummed in agreement and began searching for Gar's Facebook profile on her phone. After a few seconds, Kori showed Gar her phone screen for approval and Gar nodded in response. "I would love it if you attended!" Kori said, smiling. She stood up from the stool, and headed for the door. Before leaving, Kori raised her hand for a big farewell wave, and Gar reciprocated by lightly waving back. As Kori left, Gar sat on the stool and opened up his phone. One thing that he liked about Jump City High was the free internet connection, and while it wasn't the fastest, it was enough for him to use. He opened up his Facebook app, and swiftly accepted Kori's friend request. Upon accepting, a message from Kori popped up, telling him her address and how to get there.

Gar opened up another chat with Victor, who he hoped was online. He typed a quick message: "_kori anders invited me for dinner and wants me to invite a friend but i didnt give an answer yet_".

Luckily, Victor was online and quickly replied. "_What? Free food, Gar! Say yes! And count me in_"

Gar typed in a quick '_ok_' and sent Kori a message telling her that he and Vic will attend. Gar locked his phone, hoping that the food Kori will provide is decent.

* * *

><p><em>August 27 2014. Kori's house.<em>

Dick Grayson, like Gar, was a new student in junior year. He previously attended Gotham Academy at Gotham City, but transferred to Jump City High at the request of his guardian. Gar found Dick a bit intimidating, but in the end Dick was surprisingly easy to talk to. However Dick inconveniently wore sunglasses whether he was outdoors or not, and Gar decided to question him on it.

"Why are you wearing sunglasses inside?"

"My eyes are sensitive to light."

Gar looked around, noticing how dimly lighted it was. "It's kinda dark."

"Still applies."

Nonetheless, Kori found a friend in Dick and invited him over for dinner. Gar and Victor attended as well, albeit late, due to Gar and Victor bickering on which way to Kori's house was faster. In the end, Victor was right and he was determined to rub it in Gar's face.

"Friends!" Kori cheered to the boys, who was sitting awkwardly on a couch. Gar unfortunately sat on the middle, and was crushed by the both Dick and Victor. "Thank you for coming."

"No problem," Victor said, slightly shifting in the couch. "Nice to meet you, Kori."

"Yes, nice to meet you too, friend Victor! Now come, dinner is ready!" Kori led the boys into the dining room, which was clouded with the essence of Kori's newly cooked dinner. Gar couldn't deny it; the smell was outstanding, and Gar was convinced that Kori was an extremely talented cook, which only made him more excited. To Gar's luck and Victor's dismay, the soup contained no meat and was instead filled with tofu. Once the four of them sat at the dinner table, they immediately took a spoonful of the soup.

What they didn't expect was the bitter and unpleasant taste of the soup. Both Gar and Dick uncomfortably swallowed the soup to be polite, but Victor unceremoniously spit out the soup on a piece of tissue. Kori however was unaware of her guests' reaction and remained eating peacefully.

"How is the soup?" Kori asked, her innocent eyes wide in curiosity. Not willing to hurt her feelings, the boys immediately replied back.

"Amazing!" Gar responded, showing an insincere smile which unsuccessfully covered his disgusted expression.

"One of a kind." Dick supplied, nodding. Gar lightly chuckled at Dick's comment, agreeing that Kori's soup _is_ one of a kind, although not in a good way.

Kori seemed pleased with their feedback and looked at Victor for his reaction. Victor's face was scrunched up in discomfort, but he cleared his throat to speak, trying to feign a smile. "So good…" Victor said, holding up a thumbs up. "So good… I'm already full! No need to feed me anymore, Kori, I'm good."

This made Kori jump in glee and excitement. "Glorious! Let me do the dish washing. May you please retreat back to the living room? You can watch the shows of the television, if you'd like!"

This time, Victor sat on the floor, leaving more room for Gar and Dick to sit. The TV was showing some outdated sitcom which Gar swore he had seen when he was in third grade. Dick cleared his throat, and started speaking up.

"So, Vic, where are you from?" Dick asked, and Victor swiftly replied, eyes still stuck on the screen.

"Jump City," Victor said. "Born here, raised here, live here… Nothing much."

Dick seemed content with Victor's reply, and proceeded to ask Gar, who was twitching uncomfortably in his seat. "Gar, where are you from?"

"Steel City." Gar replied back, hoping that Dick was satisfied with Gar's answer like he was satisfied with Vic's. Unfortunately, Dick wasn't, and decided to pester Gar with more questions.

"What about your ethnicity?"

"My what?"

Dick sighed, and Gar swore that behind his sunglasses, Dick was rolling his eyes. "Your race, something like that."

"Half American, half South African," Gar said. "Why are you asking?"

"Well, don't be offended," Dick began. "but you don't look like you're from Steel City. Steel people look more work-oriented, and I can tell from a distance that you don't really fit the quota. Of course, I might be wrong. Where else have you lived? Twin City? Groves Peak? Lakers Town? Perhaps Lakers Town, you seem to fit the type."

What aggravated Gar was that all the places Dick mentioned were once places Gar lived in and once loved. He remembered Lakers Town, the city he was in before he moved to Steel City, and was hit by painful memories of saying goodbyes to friends he had grown so attached to. And inevitably, he was hit by memories of Tara.

_Tara_.

Tara was once his girlfriend during his time in Lakers Town. Both instantly got along with each other and enjoyed each other's presence the more and more they hung out. He remembered the way Tara's face broke down when Gar told her he was moving to Steel City, which was on the other side of the country. Tara rejected his idea of having a long distance relationship, and ever since the two broke off all communications with each other.

In his second semester of sophomore year, Gar added Tara on Facebook, only to see that Tara has moved on. Gar and Tara have rarely spoken to each other unless its one of their birthdays, and Gar couldn't imagine getting back with Tara with who he is now, but Gar couldn't help but think how things could've gone differently if he didn't move from Lakers Town at all.

Pushing back his painful memories of the past and replacing it with fury, Gar stared daggers at Dick, who was scrutinizing Gar's expression. "Who do you think you are!" Gar exclaimed, and it was enough to make Victor look away from the television screen and gape in shock. "Like, honestly, what – what gives – I'm come from Steel City and I'm half South African, isn't that enough!"

By that moment, Kori stepped out of the kitchen, only to see the boys heated up by either anxiety or anger. Attempting to dissipate the tension, she rushed to the couch, and smiled nervously. "Hungry, is it not? I have dessert!"

She pointed to the direction of the kitchen, and Victor, who was extremely surprised by how Gar's angry attitude mismatched his generally easy going personality, rushed to the kitchen for closure. Kori held her hands together in apprehension, and watched as Dick stared at Gar astoundedly.

"Dick? Gar?" Kori said, trying to grab their attention, but Gar only shook his head and stood up. He thanked Kori for the meal, and headed home. He ignored the intrusive questions his adoptive mother, Rita, asked him as he walked to his room, and made a point not to talk to him by slamming his door.

Gar was acting foolish, sure, but it was only because he detested being reminded of his past. He looked around his room and paid attention to how his room was covered with unpacked boxes and suitcases. Gar didn't see the need to unpack his belongings and place it into the drawer Rita bought for him because in the end, he was sure he was leaving Jump City once the year ends. Sighing deeply, he jumped on his bed, and began playing games on his phone until it ran out of battery, and eventually, he fell into a deep slumber.

* * *

><p><em>August 28 2014. Jump City High.<em>

The next day, Gar felt undoubtedly guilty by how he treated Dick, and even though he still felt angered by it, he knew that it would probably be the best if he apologized to Dick. Luckily, before classes have begun, Gar found Dick by the lockers and started apologizing. He made sure to pinpoint how he was uncomfortable talking about his past, and that he wasn't usually angry.

"...So, yeah, I'm sorry. Hope you can forgive me?" Gar said unsurely, rubbing the back of his neck. To his surprise, the corners of Dick's mouth turned upwards, and Gar instinctively reflected Dick's expression, smiling back.

"Yeah, I forgive you," Dick said. "I'm also sorry on how I was interrogating you. I'm just a curious person."

Gar laughed slightly and nodded. "Yeah, I agree," Gar paused, thinking of what to say next. "We cool?"

"Oh, definitely," Dick agreed. "Oh, on Saturday do you want to join us for a movie night? I'll message you my address."

"Of course!" Gar beamed, happy that his friendship with Dick was more or less reconciled. "Hey, I gotta go, World History."

"Yeah, same here, I need to change to PE uniform." Dick said, and turned around but not before saying bye. Gar watched as Dick walked away, and turned on his heel, heading to his World History class. Unbeknownst to Gar, a hooded girl was walking opposite the direction in which Gar was walking, and was bound to crash one another.

"Oh!" Gar exclaimed, however he was more affected by not knowing where he was heading to than the pain of crashing into another person. Gar looked up, and was inevitably shocked when he finds out that the person was none other than Raven Roth. Intimidated by her cold stare, he began blurting out apologies profusely.

"I'm so sorry. I really am. I didn't look at where I was, and I'm so so sorry, please forgive me?" To his annoyance, Raven merely stared at him, and walked away.

_What's her problem?_ Gar was certainly irritated by her lack of response, and ran to her, grabbing her arm. Raven seemed surprise by Gar's action, and turned her head around, causing her hoodie to drop. Gar took special attention to how her heart-shaped face was now covered by a scowl. "Are we cool? I really am sorry."

He hoped that Raven would at least give him an answer, and she did, but not in the way he expected. It took a while for her to regain her composure, but once she did, she pushed Gar on the chest, commanded him to leave her alone, and walked away. Gar did nothing but stare as he tried to regain his thoughts straight.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for the reviews and followsfavourites! They keep me highly motivated and I definitely wish for more feedback.**

**As a prize for the first person to review the rewritten version of this story, I had the person choose a secondary ship for this story. This person is known here as _Sydni B_, and she requested Jinx/Kid Flash. So that will be the secondary ship of the story.**

**For the majority of this story, I'll be giving out prizes for the first person to review a chapter. **

**Rules: 1) First off, I will not be writing any character that has been in Gar's past (ie. Terra/Tara). 2) I must be able to contact you, of course! If you're anonymous you won't be getting the prize. 3) No OCs. 4) No OOC requests...**

**These prizes can either be a ship feature, small scene... Anything that can help me develop the story further.**

**Thank you for reading!**

**[P.S. All names for minor characters used in this story are names I randomly picked from the DC Comics Wiki page]**

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><p><strong>Next chapter:<strong>

_**"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I will be assigning the pairs.**_**"**


	3. Three

_August 27 2014. Jump City High._

"Garfield Logan!"

Upon hearing his name being called, Gar slowly looked up from the score sheet he received earlier in Art History. Gar scored seventy-six percent, which was enough for Gar as he knew he didn't put much effort into presenting his ideas. In addition, Gar was pleased to know that Mr. Simms had a conscience, as the said teacher allowed Kori to present a second time. Much to Kori's exuberance, she scored a ninety-three percent. Regaining his focus, Gar folded the score sheet to see Karen with a less than pleased expression. Gar swallowed, fear growing as he watched Karen's foot impatiently tapping on the floor.

"Uh, hi Karen!" Gar smiled cheerfully, hoping that Karen's frightening expression would diminish. To his dismay, it didn't and it only made Karen more angry than she was before.

"Oh, so you have time to talk to me now!" Karen exclaimed, crossing her arms. Gar did nothing but gape, confused on what Karen's deal was. After a few moments of contemplating, Gar hadn't a clue.

Sensing Gar's cluelessness, Karen huffed and rolled her eyes. "You're all too busy!"

Gar scratched his head, and thought about what he has done recently. Other than working half-heartedly on his homework, playing video games and watching movie marathons with the others, Gar did not do much. Gar didn't join any extra-curricular activities either, so Karen's claim only made him more perplexed.

"I don't get what you mean..." Gar finally said which prompted Karen to shake both of her fists angrily.

"At lunch," Karen seethed, and Gar slowly took a step back to avoid any possible physical harm that Karen might cause. "I sit alone. You and Victor, are busy sitting with Dick and Kori. Which is fine, you know? Like, you're not entitled to sit with me all the time. But it would be really darn nice if you guys, oh, I don't know, tell me about it, so that I wouldn't be sitting alone on the lunch table waiting for you guys and simultaneously looking like a fool!"

"Hold on–"

"And it's not only you two! As we all know, Garth is too busy with his swim schedule that it's like he bought his own home nearby the swimming pool! It's not like, I can go to him and demand that he sits with me, because I would look like an imbecile, and not to mention, a needy whiny little princess. I don't need to be a reincarnation of Kitten the Bridezilla!"

"Uh, what's an imbecile–"

"Oh, and let's talk about Wally. We all know he loves lunch, but for some reason, he's not sitting with me! You know what he's doing?" Gar opened his mouth to answer, but Karen cut him off. "No, you don't know, Gar, because you're too busy with your new friends to even care about your old friends!"

"Karen–"

"Wally says that he's on a 'quest of love'! What does that mean, I don't know!" Karen looked as if she wanted to say more, but she regained composure of herself and took a deep sigh. "I know that I'm the only girl in our friend group but... I don't know. Do you guys trust me so little?"

"Karen, no!" Gar said, and placed both of his hands on her shoulders. "Didn't Victor tell you about Dick and Kori?"

"No, he didn't. I mean, I wouldn't be this angry if he did."

"I thought he did," Gar mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Even so, it was uncool of us not to tell you... I'm sorry. But, you can't possibly sit alone in the cafeteria. Be honest."

Karen looked sheepish as Gar removed his hands from her shoulders. She shrugged, and mumbled to herself. "I do sit with a few people..." When Gar asked who does she sit with, Karen's face flushed. "The twins. Mas y Menos. The one on the freak list."

"Dude, so what about the freak list! Kori's on it and she's cool!" Gar pointed out, and Karen looked away. "And is Mas y Menos their real name?"

"Uh, I don't know. Their last names are Rodriguez, though. But you know what's so aggravating about them?"

"No?"

"They only speak Spanish in casual situations!" Karen said. "They understand English, but refuse to speak it unless you're a teacher or something. It's so annoying. I can't understand them at all."

"Look," Gar said. "You don't have to isolate yourself because things are not going the way as it usually does. Come hang out with us in lunch. Dick invites us over his place to have a movie marathon every Friday, and let me tell you, his place is huge!"

Karen smiled slightly, but her expression still looked more forlorn than cheerful. "I'd love to, but you know... I think I grew a soft spot for the twins," Noticing Gar's confused expression, Karen quickly explained herself. "Even though I don't understand a word they say... It's their actions, you know? They're kind of funny, and they try to comfort me at times... I don't know, I think I feel like a mother with them."

"Okay, mommy," Gar cooed which caused Karen to scowl. "It's not like we're restrictive or anything, the twins are allowed to come with too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, of course!" Gar assured, and held up a thumbs up. "The more the merrier, right? We'd love more people to come."

* * *

><p><em>August 27 2014. Dick's house.<em>

Gar's statement has been true for everyone but one, that one being Dick. Dick didn't mind the extra people coming but what he did mind was how Mas and Menos mostly captured Kori's attention. To Dick's chagrin, Kori was the only one who understood Spanish, therefore she was the only one who understood Mas and Menos as well. Upon meeting Kori, the twins immediately became attached to her, and it was undoubtedly obvious the two grew an instant crush. While the twins got along with each other perfectly, the two couldn't help but argue for Kori's attention.

Kori, however, remained oblivious to the twin's sudden infatuation with her, and treated both of them more or less the same. Victor was quick to notice Dick's agitated expression and was sure to poke fun of it.

"Whoa," Victor said, fanning his nose. "Is it me or does it smell like jealousy here?"

Dick immediately glared at Victor and immediately responded. "The exit is right there," Dick said, pointing to the staircase that led to the main door. "Want me to take you there?"

"Are you two together?" Karen asked, watching Kori and the twins enter the kitchen, which aggravated Dick even more.

Flustered by Karen's abrupt question, Dick blushed and immediately ducked his head. Gar, who was previously in the restroom, entered the living room and noticed Dick's sheepish appearance. "So," Gar said, taking a seat next to Dick. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened." Dick said, but Victor waved him off.

"The boy wonder here's jealous of the two _gemelos_ stealing his girlfriend's attention."

"Hey–"

"Chill," Gar said, spreading his arms across the back of the couch. "Not like she likes them or anything, right?"

"There'll be no instances of '_chilling_' because I don't like her." Dick huffed, and right at that moment, Kori walked in the living room from the kitchen, with the twins following her like a lost puppy.

"Friend Dick doesn't like whom?" Kori asked, plopping herself to the seat next to Karen. Gar and Victor looked at each other with a mischievous glint in their eyes as Dick covered his face with his hands.

"You!" Gar and Victor said simultaneously, and Kori gasped, while Karen shook her head and Dick began frantically shaking his head.

"If you don't like me," Kori said, eyes focused on Dick. "Then why am I here on the night of the movies with you?"

Gar lost it when he saw Dick's disconcerted expression as he waved his hands, fumbling to get the right words out of his mouth. At the corner of Gar's eyes, Karen was rolling her eyes but that didn't stop her from slightly smiling at how ridiculous the situation seemed. Next to him was Vic, who was also losing it as his laughter eventually led him to literally roll on the floor. Despite how loud the situation was, however, the twins remained in their own world, observing each piece of popcorn before devouring it.

"I–"

"You what?"

"Kori, it's not like that–"

"Like what? I shall go out of your house, if you'd like then!"

"No, don't! It's true that I don't like you, but that's in the romantic sense!"

Silence from Kori followed, and after a brief but excruciatingly awkward silence between the two of them, Kori spoke up. "I am not worthy of your romantic feelings, then?"

"What–"

But before Dick could say anything else, Kori held up a hand and stood up from her seat, straightening her skirt. As she motioned towards the staircase, the twins placed the popcorn bowl on the coffee table and immediately followed. Dick, too occupied with what has happened, did nothing but stare, while Gar and Victor looked at each other, hinting that perhaps their pranks may have gone overboard.

Karen stood up from her seat, and walked towards Kori. "Hey, Kori," Karen said, lightly grabbing Kori's wrist which prompted her to turn around, revealing her less than amused expression. "This is all just a misunderstanding, and we're already here! We've already picked the movie together, right?" Kori nodded, remembering how the first thing she and Karen conversed about were chick flicks, something Kori had little to no knowledge about. "If the boys annoy you again, we could just kick their butts and leave, alright?"

Karen's words of reassurance was quick to bring a joyful gleam in Kori's eyes, and the redheaded girl nodded, following Karen as they both walked back to the sofa where they were previously sitting. Mas and Menos looked at each other with a confused look on their faces, but after a few seconds, the two merely shrugged and followed Kori as well.

"You know," Karen said, adjusting her seat on the couch. Her eyes was directed at Dick, and he was apprehensive on whether or not Karen would comment on what happened earlier. To his relief, she didn't, and she instead asked something unexpected. "Your house is really big, but empty. Do you live with anyone else?"

Dick shrugged, reaching over the coffee table to get the bowl of popcorn that the twins left. "I live with my guardian. Technically, my brother lives here as well but I never see him around."

"Your brother?" Victor asked, and Dick nodded, plopping the bowl on Gar's lap. "I didn't know you had any."

"He's adopted," Dick clarified, and Gar felt a pang of nostalgia as he remembered how he was adopted. Due to an accident over a safari trip, both Gar's biological parents died, leaving him in the hands of his adoptive parents, Rita and Steve. Admittedly, Gar didn't feel any remorse over his biological parents due to the fact that he was a toddler when it happened, but Gar still wondered how his life would be if the accident didn't happen. "His name is Jason," Dick said, causing Gar to snap out of his thoughts. "He goes to Jump City High, freshman year."

Karen nodded, seemingly uninterested at the mention of someone in a lower grade level than her. "What are we watching today?"

"Oh!" Kori piped up. "How about the Mean Girls?"

"Do you even have that movie?" Victor asked, and Dick shrugged in response. "You do? No way. No way you have it."

"No way we're watching it!" Gar supplied and Karen glared at him. "How about something cool, like Transformers 4?"

"Boring," Karen said, and Kori nodded in response, although it was obvious she had limited knowledge of the Transformers movie. "That movie was three hours! And I slept in the cinema."

"Yeah," Victor responded, scowling his eyes. "With the ticket _I_ bought you?"

Karen dismissed Victor's complain and stood up to find a movie worth watching. As she looked through the movie rack, Karen was bombarded with movie requests of different genres. Sick of the ruckus, Karen grabbed a copy of Mean Girls and popped it in the DVD player.

"You're joking." Victor deadpanned, as he watched the TV screen light up. Karen ignored the protests that stemmed from the boys side, and plopped herself back to her seat. Although Victor did nothing but blurt out objections or criticism, he couldn't deny that he actually liked the movie, much to Karen's delight and Victor's chagrin.

* * *

><p><em>August 28 2014. Jump City High.<em>

"Today we're doing passes! Partner up! I'll be in the office, doing teacher stuff… You know how it goes."

As soon as the coach left the gym for his office, Wally instantly rushed to Gar's side with a basketball in his hands. Gar noticed that Wally's red hair was frazzled and that his PE uniform was evidently stained dark. Deciding not to comment on his friend's look, Gar smiled and took the basketball from Wally.

Gar had no problem with sports but one thing he always hated, other than Math, was PE. It wasn't as if he was awful at PE; in fact, Gar often excelled in the class. It was more of the fact that Gar felt mostly disturbed when forced to perform sports he didn't care about. Not to mention, Gar detested the whole ordeal of having to change outfits for just one subject. Gar wasn't particularly a neat person, and since it was more or less mandatory to keep one's body hygienic after PE class, it was easy for him to hate the class.

As Wally rambled on and on about how his day went, Gar noted the different types of people in his gym class. There were the overzealous students who felt that every move anyone else made was a trigger for competition. Gar had no problem with competition, but he didn't think that something as lame as a gym class should qualify as the Olympics or something. Then there were the apathetic gym students who puts minimal effort in their work, claiming that PE class required too much effort. Next were the students who deemed gym class synonymous to 'break time', and therefore were infamous for their tendencies to slack. These students see PE as fun and games, and do not take anything seriously.

"...So yeah, I'm in a quest for love, and I need your help." Wally said, and it successfully diverted Gar's attention from two mismatched basketball partners on the other side of the court back to him.

"Help for what?" Gar asked, not realizing that his question made it obvious he wasn't listening to Wally. He remembered Karen complaining about Wally and his ambiguous journey for something, but Gar didn't have the chance to ask Wally himself.

Wally rolled his eyes, evidently annoyed that Gar wasn't listening earlier, thus wasting Wally's time. "Weren't you listening?" When Gar shook his head as a response, Wally pushed the basketball that Gar was hugging, injuring the new student's torso. "On Friday, my dream girl is attending this concert in this club with one of her friends. That's where you step in - you become the distraction for her friend while I get to spend a lovely night with her."

"Why would I agree?" Gar said adamantly, tossing the basketball to Wally's hands. "Besides, aren't you the one who ditched Karen at lunch for this dumb 'quest'?"

"Well, we have that in common," Wally retorted, passing back the basketball back to Gar. "Don't you think? Besides, I told Karen myself that I'd be busy, but you didn't say anything to her. Plus, you're the only friend I have who's new, therefore isn't prone to being biased."

"Actually, dude," Gar said, continuing the passes. "Victor and I made up with her last week. We invited her to a movie night along with some other people in our grade. And enough about Karen - why would I help you?"

"Because if you do," Wally cooed, putting emphasis on the last word as he tossed the ball back to Gar. "You get a gift coupon from the game store." To prove his point, Wally pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. When he opened the paper, it was indeed a coupon, albeit a bit torn at the edges, but still enough to convince Gar.

"No way," Gar said, giving the ball to Wally in exchange for the coupon. "How did you get this?" Wally shrugged and told him he had connections. "Okay, I'll help, but not if you don't tell me who this dream girl is!"

Wally contemplated on whether or not he should tell Gar, and gave in after he realised that he trusted Gar enough. "Fine. But no judging!" When Gar nodded, Wally looked away, looking apprehensive. "It's just… This girl's a puzzle, and I want to solve it. She thinks she's mean and vindictive, and she probably is, but she has a heart of gold somewhere, and I will find it, you know? Plus, she's really good-looking–"

"You know," Gar said, interrupting Wally's description of his crush. "I don't care about the reasons why you like her. I want to know _who_ is the person you like."

Wally dribbled the basketball for a few seconds, then tossed the ball back to Gar. "No judging."

"I already told you I won't!" Gar exclaimed, hitting his friend with the ball.

Wally sighed a breath and looked at Gar with wide and expectant eyes. Gar already had a few girls in his mind but Wally's answer was off the charts.

"It's Jinx."

"Jinx?" Gar asked, and Wally nodded, the corners of his mouth slightly curving up. "But, I thought she hates you!"

Wally nodded again, his slight smile forming into a wide grin. "She does! But that will change on Friday, right?"

Gar shared no mutual classes with Jinx and therefore the only knowledge he had of her were mostly rumours. Now that he thought about it, it made sense that Wally asked Gar for help. Victor and Jinx used to date in freshmen year, and are now academic rivals. Karen had no tolerance for her and it would be absurd of Wally to ask Karen for help. Garth was too busy to help with social problems. In addition, Wally's other friends were influenced by Kitten's freak list to even consider Jinx as a normal human being. Taking these facts into account, it was obvious why Wally chose Gar instead of his other friends that he knew longer and better.

"Wait," Gar said, a thought suddenly popping into his head. It was a well-known fact that Jinx is part of the freak list, and while people on the list get shunned, Gar didn't know if the people who are affiliated with the freaks get shunned too. It wasn't like Gar was flaunting his new friendship with Kori, so not many knew about it. Dating someone from the freak list, however, would surely get attention. "But she's in the freak list."

"So?"

"Isn't it like, an unspoken rule that those not in the freak list aren't allowed to mingle with the freak list?"

"To hell with those rules!" Wally said, crossing his arms petulantly. "Not like I'm attending the party anyway. Jinx is so much more interesting than a dumb party hosted by a dumb blonde."

"Hey," Gar said, reaching for his blond locks and running his fingers through it. "I'm not dumb! And they're mostly green highlights."

Wally didn't look convinced, and he smirked at Gar, who was red by humiliation. "Whatever. So, you're saying yes, right?" Gar nodded. "Good. Meet me by the lockers after school on Friday."

And by that, the bell rang.

* * *

><p><em>August 29 2014. Wally's house to the club.<em>

Friday came, and Wally felt a mix of excitement and anxiety rushing through his veins. Luckily for Wally, he was able to get two entrance passes to the club from an upperclassman, who dealt with club and concert tickets. Wally stared at himself on the mirror, pondering whether or not he should change to something more romantic. After a few moments, Wally thought that Jinx wasn't the type to care about exterior looks, and he settled on the half-hearted effort he put into using a sweatshirt and jeans.

"What perfume should I use?" Wally asked Gar, who was lying on Wally's bed, playing with his phone. Put off by the question, Gar lowered his phone to show his unamused expression.

"I can't believe you just literally asked that," Gar said, positioning himself to sit down. He put his phone in between his crossed legs and scoffed. "Just _AXE_ yourself, then done. I want to go to the game store, like, right now."

Wally took Gar's advice and sprayed himself with _AXE_ spray. After he was finished, he placed the spray can onto his desk, and plopped himself to his bed, causing Gar to stumble a bit. "We'll go there later, but for now, we have to go to the club. It's nine already!"

The ride to the club was filled with the two of them cracking more or less pathetic jokes, which prompted the bus driver to command them to shut up. Despite the glares that the driver shot the two of them, it didn't stop them from finding ways to continue joking around. In the end, both resulted into texting each other, then laughing after.

Once they reached the club, both Wally and Gar were surrounded by the dim atmosphere of the club, and were immediately met with stares from bystanders who probably thought that Gar and Wally were lost. Gar gulped, not liking how the club was too _creepy_ for his tastes. On the other hand, Wally didn't seem to mind, as he was too occupied with his goal of finding the pink-haired anomaly.

"There she is…" Wally said, pointing to the bar. Gar looked at the direction to where Wally was pointing, and saw Jinx conversing with an unnamed male. Gar then looked back at Wally, whose jaw was clenched. "...With a guy. Billy Numerous."

"Uh, no offense to her or anything…" Gar said, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I thought she was single?"

"She is," Wally huffed, grabbing Gar's wrist and leading him to the bar. "You distract the guy, I get the girl."

"What!" Gar said, struggling to break free from Wally's grip, but to no avail. "I get stuck with the guy I barely know? Look at him! He's wearing a hat and sunglasses, he literally looks like a criminal! I don't want to get robbed!"

"Don't care, let's go." Gar whined and struggled, but in the end, he found himself standing awkwardly by the bar, with an unamused Jinx looking right through their eyes. Gar could tell that although Wally had undeniable feelings for Jinx, Jinx didn't feel the same.

"What are you doing here." It was meant to be a question, but her intonation made it apparent that she was seething, and therefore it sounded more like a sentence.

Wally, unfazed by Jinx's rage, simply smiled brightly. "To see you, of course," Wally grabbed her wrist, surprising Jinx. Another song was starting to begin, and Wally took this as his cue to leave. "I love this song!"

"Do you even know this so–"

"Let's dance!"

Gar watched as Wally dragged Jinx onto the dance floor, completely ignoring the protests that stemmed from the girl. A feeling of uneasiness hit him as he realised that he was left with Billy, whom Gar had no knowledge about. "Well," Billy said. "Didn't expect that."

"Are you two dating?" Gar asked, taking a seat next to Billy. To Gar's surprise, Billy started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"The fact that ya think I'm with a nutjob like her!"

Gar looked weirdly at Billy, who was still managing to recover from his fit of laughter. "So you guys aren't dating?"

"Nah," Billy waved Gar off. "Of course not. Y'all must be crazy to think so. No big deal, I live in the same apartment with her, she sometimes goes to parties, I tag along for the fun of it," Billy suddenly became quiet, then his eyes lit up. "Or to pick up the ladies, if ya know what I mean. Anyway - I understand the redhead, but why are you here?"

Gar rolled his eyes, and took a napkin which was lying right next beside him on the table. "Supposed to be a wingman, but I didn't know her _friend_ would be a dude."

Billy nodded, and took a sip of his drink before talking. "Yeah, well, Jinx ain't much of a friendly person to girls. 'Sides, she mostly hangs out with my grade."

Billy's claimed caused Gar to raise an eyebrow. "Uh, my grade? Aren't we in the same grade?"

"Oh, yeah, you're new," Billy said, as if that solved every problem in the world. "I repeated seventh grade, and never bothered making friends in the grade I am now."

That made sense. Gar had no shared courses with Billy and the only times he has seen the guy is by passing. Now that he thought of it, Gar have never saw Billy hanging out with people from junior year; only upperclassmen.

Suddenly a revelation hit Gar. "Wait, if you're a repeat, then how does Kitten hate you?"

Gar's question caused Billy to groan, and before he spoke, he took a big gulp of his drink and slammed the glass onto the table. Gar found it remarkable how the mention of Kitten instantly gave away negative results. "Because I make fun of her. Duh! Spoiled hag had it in her, she deserved it! Okay, since ya new, let me tell you the deal with Kitten Walker. Anyone told ya yet?"

When Gar shook his head no, Billy hummed in agreement, as if he knew why the new student had no idea of the story behind the monstrosity of Kitten. "Drury Walker. Know him?"

The name seemed familiar to Gar. If Gar remembered correctly, Drury Walker was the owner of the Walker Bioengineering Enterprises, which dealt with biological experiments, particularly gene mutation. "Wait, are you saying–"

"_Daddy_ of Kitten Walker," Billy said, and Gar's eyes widened. No wonder Kitten was so rich – her father was greatly influential. "The guy raised her to be a spoilt brat. If somethin' ain't revolvin' around her, then she throws a temper tantrum. Once someone wore the same pink shirt as she did. Poor girl got half of her hair shaved off."

"No way."

Billy nodded sadly. "Way. Horrible person, that Kitten. I know ya ain't in the list, but trust me, it ain't worth it. I've seen the horror; I attended Jump City Middle School with her along with a few miserable peeps."

"Like?"

"Well there's Joey, Toni, Kole… Oh, yeah, and Raven."

The mention of Raven's name made Gar's ears perk up. "Raven? Raven Roth?" When Billy nodded, Gar spoke again. "Dude, what's the deal with her? She's so… _Creepy_."

"I don't know," Billy shrugged and looked at his watch. "Raven tops the list every year. Heck, Raven and Kitten have been around each other since _preschool_. If Kitten had a freak list every year of her life, Raven would top it."

"But why? Why does Kitten hate her so much?"

"Nobody knows," Billy confessed. "Rumor has it that Raven did somethin' bad to her in their childhood years, but it's been so long, can't she get over it, ya get me? Oh yeah, rumor has it that back in eighth grade, Kitten told everyone that she was movin' out of town, and I remember Raven being so happy – she smiled! I know, impossible, right? But on the first day of high school, Kitten surprised everyone, and from then on, she managed to ruin Raven's high school life.

"There was this really bad rumor too in eighth grade that Raven killed her own mother," Billy said, and Gar gasped lightly. Of course, Gar couldn't tell if it was true, since he didn't know what happened, but he couldn't help but wonder if Raven really was capable of doin' so. "Well, in the end, it really _was_ a rumor. Her mother committed suicide, and when everyone found out, the rumors stopped. But duh, that ain't enough to certify that Raven isn't a creepy murderer or somethin'."

Hearing Billy talk more and more about the relationship between Raven and Kitten made Gar more and more uneasy. Although he couldn't deny that Raven made Gar outright scared, he knew that Raven didn't deserve the horrible things Kitten have done to her. Even though Raven might've done something to Kitten in their childhood years, Gar was sure it wasn't something huge and that Kitten was blowing things out of proportion. Raven needed someone to make sure that she was okay, that she wasn't a freak like everyone believes her to be, and Gar was determined to make that _someone_ himself.

* * *

><p><em>September 1 2014. Jump City High.<em>

Mondays have always been the day Gar dreaded the most. He had English first period, and he was determined to say at least a greeting to Raven. As he walked inside the room, he saw Raven in the back of the room, attention fully diverted to the thick book she was reading. He headed towards her desk, only to be stopped by a hand gripping his wrist.

"Uh," a voice said, and when Gar turned around, he found that it was Isaiah holding his wrist. "You sit here."

When Gar saw how Isaiah pulled out the chair next to him in an expectant way, Gar struggled on what he should do next. Finally deciding on an option, he sat on the chair next to Isaiah, thinking that even if Gar approached Raven, Raven wouldn't be happy about it either.

The room was filled with mindless chatter and it immediately stopped when Mrs. Prince walked into the room. "Okay," Mrs. Prince said, successfully grabbing the attention of her students. "There's going to be a project in pairs."

A couple of '_yeah_'s and '_woohoo_'s clouded the room, as the class scattered to find their own partners. Gar looked at Isaiah and smirked, who was smirking in return. At least finding a partner for Gar wasn't difficult.

The class was instantly bombarded with laughter as the students became comfortable with the pairs they have chosen. Everyone was entrapped in their own business until Mrs. Prince cleared her throat, and grabbed everyone's attention. She pulled out a small bowl with pieces of folded paper, and gave it a little shake. "Joke's on you, class. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I will be assigning the pairs."

Gar instantly groaned, and saw Isaiah facepalming himself. "Class," Mrs. Prince said. "Each paper has a student's name written on it. I'll be pulling out two names, and whatever those names are, they will be assigned as pairs. Now, first… Garfield Logan."

Gar looked at Isaiah with a worried expression, and Isaiah returned the look. It wasn't that Gar hated his class, but he'd rather be paired up with someone he knew more than someone he didn't. He held his breath and anticipated for the next name to be called. "Gar, you're with…" Mrs. Prince shuffled her fingers through the pieces of paper, and eventually settled on one. "Raven Roth."

The class was silent, and Gar looked at the back of his class, only to see Raven looking back at him with an apathetic look on her face.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry for the delay! <strong>

**1. I'm on vacation, and I still have a summer assignment to do, because I ****_just_**** received it. So I rushed this chapter, which sucks but when I have the time I will look back and see my mistakes. In the mean time, please give some feedback and criticism, thank you!**

**2. School is coming! It's on the 19th, and I'll be extremely busy, due to the complex schedule I have, so I'm not sure about my future updates. I will try to update once in a week or two weeks, but if I don't, leave a review asking for one. I always check my email, anyway, so it's unlikely I'll miss your review.**

**3. This ****_is_**** an AU, so I'm using the civilian names for the characters. If you don't know who is who, then please ask!**

**(Also I tried so hard not to mix up Kid Flash from Teen Titans and Kid Flash from Young Justice)**

**First person to review gets to ask any question about the story (except if it's something like: ****_Do Gar and Raven get together_****? I know it's tempting, but come on).**

**Feedback and criticism always wanted and needed! **

**Love, **

**Irey West-Wayne**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Next Chapter:<strong>_

_**"Flower, Gar, not flour!"**_


	4. Four

_September 1 2014. Jump City High._

Gar sat still as he continued listening to Mrs. Prince call out the pairs. Everyone seemed pretty satisfied with who they ended up with, and Gar had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes when Isaiah, who got paired up with Toni, boasted how his partner was 'smart' and therefore he didn't have to do anything. Gar turned his head to check on Raven once again for closure, and felt himself slightly perturbed when Raven looked straight back at him with a glare. After a few short seconds, Gar quickly turned his head back to the board, ignoring the strange looks from his friend next to him.

"Alright," Mrs. Prince said as she put the bucket on her desk. "You have the whole period to discuss this project with your partners, and I know many of you are thinking 'free period' right now, but no. I will check at the end of the class what progress have each of you made."

Mrs. Prince eyed the classroom carefully and gave a slight frown to those who looked indignant to her words before continuing. "What I require all of you to do is to pick any topic of your choice. It could be anything, really - skydiving, politics, animals… Anything as long as it is not profane. What I'd like you all to do with your topic is to create a video related to your topic, no less than two minutes but no more than five. Today is the first of September, and these videos should be done before the eighth, which is when you present the videos.

"The next day, each pair has to prepare an oral presentation for the class and a panel of judges. These judges will be teachers, I haven't decided whom. Most importantly, however, on the twelfth, you will all submit an individual reflective essay on your work. Yes, the time span is quite short," Mrs. Prince said as she eyed the corner of the room in which groans came from. "But as you all know, I do have a lot of projects planned up."

"Um," Kitten said, looking absolutely bored with the topic. "What is the point of this project?"

"I'll get back to that," Mrs. Prince said curtly, which caused Kitten to roll her eyes. "This project allows all of you to divulge deeper in a subject of interest. Say, you want to be a lawyer, then this project is a perfect opportunity to develop your research skills. Not only that, all of you will inquire all the skills required in higher education, where you are expected to be more independent in your studies. And lastly, you will develop the skills to work with others and promote your self esteem."

Everyone seemed pretty satisfied with the teacher's points however Gar couldn't help but notice how everyone was paired up with someone they did not know well, which convinced Gar that Mrs. Prince didn't pick the pairs arbitrarily, but instead by choice.

"Mrs. Prince?" A boy in the corner piped up, and all eyes turned on him, causing him to cower in his seat. Mrs. Prince gave him a nod and the boy spoke again. "How do you ensure top marks?"

"Great question," Mrs. Prince responded, and some people sniggered at how much the boy seemed like an overachiever. "I would go over the rubric, but I'd like the rest of the class time to be given to you. The rubric will be posted online in the school website, check it tonight. As for now, I'd like all of you to sit with your pairs and discuss your project. You may begin."

Everyone started moving around the class to go near their partners. Gar watched as Isaiah walked to the front, casually grabbing a seat next to Toni. Sighing, he turned around and faced Raven. "Here?" Gar mouthed to Raven, and Raven scowled.

"No," Raven mouthed back, and placed her hand to the desk next to her. "Here."

Groaning, Gar stood up and dragged his backpack to the back of the room, and reluctantly took a seat next to her. "I want video games." Gar said, turning his chair to face her. Raven stayed in place, but still managed to turn her head slightly in Gar's direction.

"Absolutely not," Raven seethed, and Gar groaned in response. "I'm not interested in the topic."

"Then what are you interested in?"

"Let's do something related to Psychology."

"Absolutely not," Gar mocked, which made Raven clench her jaw. Gar found Psychology uninteresting, as he found the whole subject mundane. Of course, Gar liked understanding people, but he felt that it shouldn't be one boring, ominous subject. "I'm not interested in Psychology as well. Let's do video games."

Raven glowered her eyes at Gar, and Gar immediately backed away a bit. "I don't want to repeat myself. I am not interested in video games, and that will not be our subject."

"Well, I'm not interested in Psychology either!" Gar retorted. Gar felt an argument coming up, and Gar loathed arguments but he felt the need to persuade Raven to his side. "I came up with my idea first!"

"That doesn't mean anything."

"First thought, best thought."

"Only if it's logical."

"Ugh!" Gar said, crossing his arms. The two remained silent for a short while until Gar got struck by an idea. Throughout his whole life, his adoptive parents always found it hard to settle on a conclusion due to their different mindsets. They would argue for so long until one day, they both decided to flip a coin to reach a decision. "You know what? Let's flip a coin." Gar suggested and immediately frowned once he saw Raven's skeptical look.

"You're going to rely on luck for a decision?" Raven asked dubiously. "No. We're going to rely on _logic_, not a stupid coin."

"Well this stupid coin," Gar said, pulling out his wallet from his pocket to retrieve a penny. "Will solve all our problems. No need for logic." Gar smirked to himself as Raven huffed. "You're unlucky, is it? That's why you don't want to rely on luck for a decision."

"You know what?" Raven said, turning her chair to Gar's direction so that they were now face to face. "Flip it. Heads."

"Fine," Gar said smugly and maintained his smug look until he realised what side of the coin Raven chose. "Hey, not fair! I was going to pick heads!"

When Raven nudged her head in his direction, Gar rolled his eyes and placed the coin on his pointer finger and flipped it with his thumb. Both watched the coin get tossed up into the air and to their ultimate dismay, the coin ended up landing on the far end of the room, and Gar and Raven didn't do anything but stare.

"Flip another," Raven instructed, and Gar shook his head vehemently. "What?"

"I'm not flipping another coin, it's your turn to sacrifice your own money!"

"Yeah, well, I left my wallet in my locker," Raven admitted, and Gar muttered a few swear words to himself. "We're doing Psychology."

"Fine," Gar said, and when Raven threw him a look of surprise, Gar resumed speaking. "But _only_ if we include video games in it as well."

Raven was a silent for a moment before she began speaking. "Combine the two topics together?" Gar nodded. "That's not a bad plan, I suppose. Psychological effects of video games?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Gar said. "Can you write it down?"

"On it," Raven said as she began writing on her notebook. "Let's plan the storyboard. I was thinking of a scenario where I'm a psychiatrist and you're the patient, and we discuss your 'addiction' to video games."

"Dude, I don't want to act as if I'm mental or anything."

"You don't even have to act," Gar heard Raven mumble to herself, and scowled, but he chose not to say anything. "Do you have any ideas, then?"

"Cosplay," When Raven glowered his eyes at him, Gar was quick to react. "Hear me out! We dress as video game characters or something and we talk about our topics in character. How cool would that be!"

"Sure," Raven said, and Gar was hyped up for a second until he realized she was being sarcastic. "Let me just exchange my dignity for a costume to wear in that splendid idea of yours."

"We're never going to get a storyline," Gar moaned, and Raven sighed, dropping her pen on top of her notebook. Gar watched as Raven bit the bottom part of her lip, watching the clock pass by. Turning around to see the clock, Gar found out that they had forty minutes left till the class ends. "Thought of anything?"

"Animation? We both don't have to be in the video and I think it would be a fun thing to do."

"No, that takes way too much effort and time!"

"How about," Raven began. "I pretend I'm your mother and I try to stop you from gaming, there I could talk about the negative effects about gaming, and you, as the son, try to convince me that video games aren't so bad and bring up the positive effects about video games."

Gar raised his eyebrows, completely bought with Raven's idea. It wasn't a bad idea, and in fact he thought that it would go incredibly well. Both could argue the different sides of video games and successfully bring their point across. Gar nodded to himself, and pointed on Raven's notebook, silently instructing her to write the idea down. "Okay, so, you're going to be calling my name for dinner and I won't reply to you and you have to check up on me, and turns out I'm gaming. Like that?"

Raven nodded as she continued writing on her notebook. "I get angry at you for not responding to me because you're too busy gaming and I go over the negative effects of video games. After that you try to argue about the positive. In the end, both of us have dinner and we tell the audience to mind their addiction to video games or something."

"Yeah, that's cool. Let's write the script." Gar said, and Raven nodded, pulling out her laptop from her bag. The two finished with their rough draft ten minutes before the end of class, and Gar was undoubtedly relieved when he realized that they finished just in time for Mrs. Prince's check ups.

"Raven and Garfield," Mrs. Prince said as she tapped twice on Raven's desk. "Tell me what both of you have done."

"We finished the rough draft of the script," Raven said, and Gar sighed in ease when he saw Mrs. Prince nodding in approval. "Now we're discussing filming dates."

"Very good," Mrs. Prince said. "I look forward to seeing the end result."

"Thank you." Raven and Gar said simultaneously, and Mrs. Prince walked to the pair next to them. "Filming dates?" Gar asked once Mrs. Prince was occupied with the other group.

Raven nodded, and pulled out her phone to check her calendar. "I'm busy with after school courses in Tuesday to Thursday. The rest of the week I'm free. What about you?"

"Uh, I can't do the project today," Gar lied, and he felt uneasy once the lie slipped out of his mouth. He had a reason for lying, however - Gar simply didn't want to work on the project on a Monday, which is a school night. "Friday?"

"Friday's good, how about Saturday?" When Gar nodded, Raven continued speaking. "We do all video-related activities on Friday and Saturday and if time permits, we'll work on the presentation on Saturday but if not, we continue on Sunday."

Gar grimaced at her plans. He knew that his weekend would inevitably be blown away but having to spend three days with Raven felt very cumbersome. Although he went along pretty decently with Raven, he still can't deny that Raven's mysterious aura creeped him a lot. Gar nodded in fake approval, knowing that whatever he said against her would turn out into another unwelcome argument. "My house?" Gar asked, hoping that Raven would say no, but he knew that in the end Raven would say yes because it was very unlikely Raven would let him in his house.

"Yeah," Raven agreed and Gar inwardly groaned. "Your number?"

"I forgot, and my phone's dead," Gar sheepishly admitted. "Just add me on Facebook."

The bell rang as Raven successfully added Gar as a friend on Facebook. Once she was done, both of them left the room without saying goodbye.

* * *

><p><em>September 2 2014. Jump City High.<em>

Wally was oblivious to many things, but even he realised how badly his last encounter went with Jinx in the club.

After unsuccessful attempts to persuade Jinx to go on a date with him, Jinx inevitably punched Wally in the face and stormed off the club. Disappointed by the lack of progress, Wally headed to Gar and was ready to head home, however when he saw Gar busy talking with Billy, he decided to go home alone and leave Gar a text later.

Despite how obvious it was that Jinx hated Wally, Wally was still determined to take Jinx out on a date. He successfully obtained Jinx's schedule, which gave him everything he needed to know: her courses, her locker number and her extracurricular activities. When Wally boasted his so-called achievements to Gar, Gar immediately asked him if Wally found his 'achievements' creepy, if not pathetic. Wally was quick to reply.

"No."

Wally discovered that during his study hall, Jinx had French, which Wally felt was perfect to tail her into a date. Not only was France associated with romance, but asking out Jinx on a date in public, Wally felt, would surely highlight how serious he was into dating her.

"Uh, are you sure you want to do this now? The French teacher is quite scary." Gar said as he helped Wally adjust his tie. Wally was wearing a shirt and a pair of trousers with a rose tucked in the front pocket of the shirt. Wally felt as if he looked pretty spiffy himself, but Gar thought otherwise. Gar thought that Wally looked extremely ostentatious, if not a bit feeble.

"Yeah," Wally assured Gar, looking at himself in the bathroom mirror for closure. "I'll be fine, Gar, thanks. What do you have next?"

"English."

"Oh yeah," Wally said. "Mrs. Prince is going to introduce this project thing. You do nothing but talk to your partner and chill."

The bell rang, and it was a sign that Wally should get into business. "Wish me luck, Gar."

Gar scoffed and grabbed his bag from the floor. "Good luck."

Wally waited for the halls to empty out, and once it did he headed to the French class. He groaned at how the French class was at the fourth floor, since he was heading there from the first. Despite so, he continued walking and once he reached the fourth floor, he forgot all his pleasantries and kicked the class door open. On instant, everyone looked from the board to the frazzled red headed teenager panting by the door edge. Wally scanned the room and immediately felt his stomach fuzzy when he saw Jinx's unamused face glaring at him.

"Uh," Wally said awkwardly, entering the French room and closing the door behind him. So far, the French teacher remained silent and Wally was sure to make his point quick. "_Excusez-moi_, I'm on a quest for… _amour_."

The class chuckled at Wally's words. Jinx eyed Wally suspiciously and gave him a look that clearly asked what Wally was doing. Wally brushed her off, and walked towards her desk. He ungracefully tossed the rose onto her books, and he heard the class snort at his feeble attempts to woo Jinx.

"_Monsieur _Jinx," Wally said and the class inevitably roared into laughter. Jinx immediately facepalmed herself and the teacher rolled his eyes. "Wait. No. _Mademoiselle_?" Wally looked around for approval and felt immensely relieved when a group of girls nodded. "Uh, how do you say… _Voudrais-tu sortir_… Screw it. Jinx, will you go out with me!"

The class was filled with 'aww's and 'you go, dude!'s. Wally felt proud of himself for a second until Jinx seethed out a 'no'. But before Wally could ask why, the French teacher tapped him on the shoulder and Wally turned around to see an equally unamused, if not angered, teacher.

"_Monsieur_…?"

"Uh, Wally West, sir."

And with that, the French teacher began rambling in French, and Wally was immediately lost in his words. Once he was finished, he looked at Jinx for translation, who was smirking at him.

"Detention after school today," Jinx drawled out, and Wally felt as if his jaw dropped on to the grown. "And you're never going to score a date with me."

Wally was sure that the teacher did not say what Jinx last said, but he still felt pretty bummed out about simultaneously losing a date with Jinx and earning a detention instead.

* * *

><p>"You called her '<em>monsieur<em>'?" Gar asked, and Wally fumed, grabbing the bag of chips Gar was about to open. "Hey!"

"I don't take French, okay, jeez, give me a break!"

Gar laughed and snatched the bag of chips out of Wally's hands. "You could've sang to her in, like, Mandarin, or something." Gar said as he opened the bag open.

Wally scoffed and grabbed a chip out of the bag. "You and I both know that the only reason I survive in Mandarin class is Google Translate, and my charming skills." Wally pointed out, and he tossed the chip into his mouth.

"Too bad you had none of those when you were trying to win Jinx in her French class," Gar joked. "Sorry, too soon? I'll keep it to myself, _mademoiselle_."

"You're so funny, I forgot to laugh." Gar laughed to himself and Wally scowled, stealing the bag of chips from Gar's hands and pushing it into his bag. "I don't know what to do."

"You know _promposals_? Just do one or something for her. Without the prom thing of course."

With that, Wally felt as if a light bulb just appeared on top of his head. Standing from his seat, Wally took out the bag of chips from his backpack and tossed it to Gar's chest, causing some of the chips to fall apart. "Where are you going?" Gar asked as picked up some of the chips that landed on his shirt.

"I'm continuing my quest!" Wally exclaimed as he walked out of the cafeteria.

Wally made a mental note to thank Gar for his contributions and he headed to Kole's locker. Kole, being the only non Asian other than Wally in his Mandarin class, formed a slight camaraderie with the redhead. Although they did not speak on a daily basis, both of them relied on each other for homework help.

Despite the fact that what Wally wanted from her was not homework help, he was convinced that Kole would help him either way. He sighed in relief when he saw Kole idly standing by her locker playing with her phone, and he immediately greeted her once he was in her sight.

"Hey Kole," Wally said, and Kole waved a hello. "Say, can you help me after school?"

"Hmm," Kole muttered to herself, putting her phone in her pocket. "If I have to say the truth, you do sound a bit suspicious."

"It's nothing bad," Wally assured her. To convince her, Wally thought of the best thing that would best persuade her into helping him. "It involves baking. And ice cream."

To Wally's pleasure, Kole was completely interested and nodded her head. "Tell me."

* * *

><p><em>September 3 2014. Jump City High.<em>

"I cannot believe you baked a cake for her."

Wally scoffed as he walked out to the outdoor cafeteria with Gar by his side. Wally was carrying a box with ice cream cake inside, and on the cake were the words neatly written, thanks to Kole's help, "_Will you go out on a date with me?"_. Wally was grateful that Kole was eager to help him earn Jinx after listening to his story, and she helped him prepare a cake for her. According to Kole, the best way to a woman's heart is by sweets. Wally never heard of that phrase before, but he was hoping Kole was correct.

"Technically, I didn't bake it–"

"Yeah, Kole did," Gar pointed out. "But that's not the point. I didn't know you were friends with Kole."

"Eh," Wally shrugged. "Same race, same Mandarin class, you get the gist."

"She's there." Gar said, pointing to a big tree next to an empty bench. Wally looked at where Gar was pointing and saw that Jinx was eating alone under the tree. Smiling to himself, he regained his composure and began walking to the tree.

"Jinx," Wally said, sitting next to her on the grass. He ignored the strange looks everyone including Jinx gave him, and handed her the box. "First off, I want to say I'm sorry for what happened on Monday. That was totally, my fault, and not yours."

"I know."

"Second, I still want to go on a date with you," Jinx groaned and prepared to say something, but Wally quickly placed his finger on top of her lips. "Open the box."

He removed his finger off her lips and nudged her to open the box. Wary of what could be inside, Jinx slowly lifted the lid open and was incredibly underwhelmed when she saw the contents of the box. "Cake?"

"Yeah," Wally said. "I made it myself. Well, actually I had someone help me but, you get the point."

Jinx stayed silent for a moment and Wally felt his palms sweat. Questions of doubt began circling his mind and he feared the worst. After a few moments, which felt like a long excruciating eternity to Wally, Jinx cackled. Confused, Wally eyed Jinx suspiciously. "Jinx?"

"Oh, Wally," Jinx purred. "This would've been romantic, if I wasn't vegan." Standing, she closed the box and tossed it into his lap, and walked away. Wally groaned to himself and immediately messaged Gar.

"_Fail._"

Wally didn't have to wait long for a reply. "_lol_," his phone read. "_wut happen?_"

"_She's VEGAN_," Wally typed and pressed 'send'. He groaned at Gar's immediate response.

"_lmfao. such a charmer lol"_

Wally didn't bother replying and he stood up, heading to the indoor cafeteria. He quickly texted Kole a brief story of what happened, and groaned to himself along the way.

* * *

><p><em>September 4 2014. Jump City High.<em>

To Wally's relief, Gar was sitting alone on the benches, listening to music. Although Gar proved himself to be irrevocably useless, Wally still needed him as support. Fortunately for Wally, he devised a plan that involved no public embarrassment or wasted food, and only pure 'love'. Wally plopped himself on to the seat next to Gar, and Gar remained oblivious from his new company.

"Yo," Wally said, nudging Gar on the shoulder. Gar nodded his head to indicate that he was 'listening', but his attention was still diverted to his phone. Gar was listening to loud music and was playing a game on his phone, but that didn't stop Wally from talking to him. "I need your help."

When Gar nodded his head again, Wally took it as a cue to continue talking. "I'd do this myself but I don't have study hall today. Anyway, I need you to fill some flowers inside Jinx's locker as long as a letter I'll give you. Her code is 5-4-8, don't ask how I got it. When she opens it, I'll be right there asking her out on a date. It's perfect!"

Gar was silent for a moment and Wally tapped his shoulder to get a reply. "Flours?"

"Yeah, flowers."

Gar looked up from his screen and eyed Wally suspiciously. Wally was getting perturbed by Gar's confusion. "Um," Gar said, and Wally subconsciously leaned forward to edge out more responses from Gar. "Alright, but… Where do I get the… Flours?"

Wally sighed in relief, under the assumption that Gar understood his request. Wally took out his wallet and handed Gar ten dollars. Gar reluctantly accepted the cash and tucked it in his pocket. "You buy them in your study hall, but give me the receipt after," Wally said, and he handed the letter to Gar as well. "Try to be artistic in the placement… I mean you're taking Art History, you should know."

"Uh, yeah, I probably should."

Not wanting to disappoint his friend, Gar spent half of his free period convincing the cafeteria workers to give him bags of flour. He didn't want to get out of the school because he thought it would be pretty absurd to walk out of school just for flour. Although the workers weren't satisfied by Gar's constant pestering for flour, they relented and gave him two bags of flour.

Sighing, Gar walked to Jinx's locker and unlocked it with the code Wally gave him. Gar was more or less unsurprised with the contents of her locker; it had the obvious school necessities, but it also contained makeup and pictures of ominous looking music groups. Finally, Gar placed both bags of flour in front of her books and placed the letter in the middle.

"_done_", Gar texted to Wally.

"_Great. Immediately rendezvous to her locker at lunch, sharp."_

Lunch came and Wally immediately rushed to Jinx's locker, relieved that only Gar was there. "Success?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Great," Wally responded, and he rushed to open Jinx's locker. Gar stood next to him, anticipating Wally's response, and it was undeniably alarming once Wally reacted. "You're an idiot."

Gar was immediately thrown away by Wally's reply. "What?" Gar exclaimed. "I did what you asked me to!"

Wally slammed Jinx's locker shut and fully diverted his attention to Gar. "_Flower_, Gar, not _flour!_"

"I don't understand."

"Flower with the petals and stuff, not the one for food!"

"Oh," Gar said, and he crossed his arms. "In my defense, the way you say 'flour' is the same as you say 'flower'! You gotta be more clear about your wants, West!"

"Oh, for the mother of everything holy," Wally muttered under his breath. "I thought I didn't _need_ to clarify the differences between a plant and powder. And by the way, where's the receipt?"

"I didn't receive one."

"What do you mean you didn't receive one?"

"I just asked the cafeteria workers for flour," Gar explained. "And then I used your money to bribe them."

"You moron!" Wally exclaimed, causing a few heads to turn at them. "Not only this mission is ruined, but you wasted my ten dollars!"

"Get in with the times, West," Gar retorted. "_Flour_ is pronounced like _flower_."

Wally tried extremely hard not to harm his friend. "No, it's pronounced like _floor_."

"_Flahr,_" Gar imitated, and Wally whacked the back of his head. "Why would they add the '-ur' in the end of the word, then? How do you pronounce the word 'our'? Like flower, right? Not '_flahr_'."

"I hate you so much right now it's not–"

"Boys," A voice interrupted, and to both of the boys surprise, it was Jinx. "You're both being ridiculous."

"Jinx!" Wally exclaimed. "I, uh, I didn't expect you, uh, well I did, but–"

"I heard your argument, boys," Jinx said, and both of them did nothing but gape at each other. "In fact, Wallace," Gar had to stifle a snort to prevent getting hit by Wally. "I'll go on a date with you. Only because I find your misfortune so amusing."

"I – What?"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "I'll go on a date with you," Jinx repeated slowly. "Meet me at Jump City Mall, tomorrow, six o'clock. I'll text you the deets. Now, shoo!"

Wally was struck with awe and stayed in one place, gaping at Jinx with an open wide jaw. Sighing, Gar dragged Wally away, and once they were out of Jinx's sight Wally began jumping in joy.

"I love you!" Wally exclaimed and he unceremoniously threw a hug at Gar. "I could kiss you right now! Except I won't, because you're disgusting."

"Hey!"

"Oh Gar, you never wrong me. Help me prepare tomorrow."

"I can't," Gar said sadly. "I have to work on my English project tomorrow."

"Oh yeah," Wally said. "That reminds me, who's your partner?"

"Raven," Gar replied, and when he saw Wally's weirded out expression, Gar was quick to respond. "You know, she's not that bad, I guess."

"Yeah, whatever," Wally said, brushing Gar off. "I'll tell you what happens tomorrow. Wish me luck!"

"I'll wish it to you later."

* * *

><p><em>September 5 2014. Jump City Mall.<em>

Unbeknownst to the three of them, Kitten was eavesdropping the entire time, and was undeniably enraged by the interaction between the 'freaks' and those she deemed normal. Wally West, to her, was more or less okay in her list. She never had a problem with him except for the fact that when he talked, he was rushing his words. However, only now did she have a problem with him.

However, Kitten wasn't planning on relegating Wally to the freak list – that would be too rash of her. Instead, she's going to tamper with both of their feelings.

"Gemma," Kitten said to her friend next to her, who was occupied with organising her locker. "Tomorrow is Sabotage Day. Tell Selinda – this is going to be super hilarious."

Friday came, and Kitten rushed to the mall. She saw Wally waiting for Jinx at a table, and she immediately sat few tables away from him. Both she and Wally waited for five minutes until Jinx came. Kitten felt the need to mimic vomiting once she saw what Jinx was wearing.

"Hey," Kitten heard Jinx say. But before Wally could respond or Jinx could sit, Kitten immediately stood up from her seat, ran to Wally, and gave him a hug. "What's _she_ doing here?"

"Uh–"

"Wally!" Kitten interrupted, and she smirked at Jinx's indignant expression. "I didn't think you would actually do it."

"Do what?" Wally said, confused. To his response, Kitten merely giggled and Jinx was even more angered.

"What's going on?" Jinx asked, but Kitten brushed her off.

"But thank you," Kitten said, and Wally's face screamed confusion. "You did exactly what I asked you to. You made Jinx think she was actually worthy of a date!"

Kitten didn't have to wait long for their responses. "What?!" Both Wally and Jinx exclaimed, though Wally's exclamation was masked with bafflement, and Jinx's with wrath.

"I can't believe you," Jinx seethed. "You must think you're all that, don't you? Guess what, you're not." Jinx pushed Wally hard enough for him to stumble, and she stormed out, muttering a string of curse words to herself.

"She's a freak," Kitten said when Wally looked at her in bewilderment. "You shouldn't rank yourself to her level."

"Freak or not," Wally said in a stoic voice. "I like her." With that, Wally ran off to chase after Jinx, however Kitten knew that Wally would never find her.

Kitten took out her phone and posed for a selfie on Snapchat. Smiling to herself, she typed in a caption and sent it to her friends Gemma and Selinda.

"_Mission: Freak Jinx success!_" The caption read.

* * *

><p><em>September 5 2014. Jump City High Library to Jump City Park to Pizza Corner.<em>

The school library was empty once Gar walked in, and he felt a sense of strangeness cloud him. He seldom went to the school library, unless he wanted to work on something during his free period. Gar walked around the library in confusion, and was instantly relieved when he saw Raven sitting by a table, reading something that Gar presumed was the script.

"Sup," Gar greeted as he took a seat next to her. Raven nodded in response, and handed him a script in silence. "Thanks, Rae! Oh, I bought the cameras and all."

"Do not call me that," Raven chastised, and Gar fell silent. "We're going to the park. We'll be shooting the basketball scenes, and then we'll go to your house to shoot the next. Sounds good?"

"Yeah."

The walk to the park was more or less silent, the only apparent sound being the clangor of the camera's tripod against the sidewalk. Once they reached the park, Gar set up the camera and Raven took out the basketball from Gar's bag. She reviewed the script on her phone again before talking to Gar.

"Do you remember your lines?" Raven asked, and Gar gave her a thumbs up. "Good. Alright so go near that tree… And scream at it."

Gar did as he told, and Raven began recording. Along the course of Gar's aggression towards the tree, Raven began explaining about the negative effects of gaming, claiming that prolonged gaming could lead to aggression. Later on, the two filmed nearly half the script. And although Raven mostly had a scowl on her face and Gar mostly complained (except in front of the camera, where Gar said she would have to look more 'approachable), both of them couldn't deny that they had fun.

"I'm hungry," Gar said, and Raven glanced at her phone to check the time. _17:58_, it read. "Can we go to Pizza Corner or something?"

Raven reluctantly agreed, and the two headed to the restaurant. Along the course of ordering their meals, Gar was ultimately disgusted at how Raven ordered '_Meat Lovers Pizza'_. "You're eating dead animals." Gar pointed out, to which Raven responded: "And you're eating dead plants, so we're both murderers."

"Let's play twenty questions," Gar said as both of them settled in their seats. Raven took a sip of her soda and Gar continued talking. "I'll start. What's your favorite color–"

"Who said I agreed to playing?" Raven asked, and she played with the straw in her cup.

"What, you want to stay silent the whole time we eat?"

"It's not like we're friends or anything," Raven spat, and Gar raised his eyebrows. Although Raven's words were meant to be menacing, Gar wasn't that affected by her words, as he guessed that she probably said those words to shut him up. "We're not obligated to speak to each other."

"Don't you get tired of being alone or something?"

"No," Raven said. "Actually, being around people makes me tired."

"How could it be tiring?" Gar said. "I love people! I love food too." With that, Gar took a big munch of his pizza, causing Raven to scrunch her face in disgust.

"You're one example why I don't like people." Raven said, and Gar rolled his eyes at her.

"Favorite color?" Gar tried asking again, and Raven sighed. Raven herself knew that she couldn't resist the look Gar was giving her, and if he really wanted to know about her favorite color, Raven guessed she would tell him.

"Purple," Raven replied, and was instantly bothered when Gar replied with a: "I knew it!". "If you knew, why did you ask?"

"Hey, you're playing the game now!" Gar pointed out, and Raven slightly reddened as she didn't realize that what she said to him was a question. "Because I wanted confirmation. Next question. Do you like my hair?"

"Oh, you're serious," Raven commented and Gar nodded his head happily. Raven eyed Gar's hair, noticing how his green streaks were lightly fading away and his blond roots were beginning to show. "I would much rather drink a bottle of soy sauce then have hair like yours."

"What!" Gar exclaimed, and Raven raised an eyebrow in response. "I love my hair. I think I'm going to go full green."

"Why green?" Raven asked, and after a moment she mentally chastised herself for subconsciously complying to the game. "I wasn't supposed to ask that."

"But you did," Gar cooed, and Raven growled at him. "Well I love the color green. I guess that's the reason why. Why did you color your hair purple?"

"It's natural," Raven said, and Gar immediately scoffed. Gar could tell that purple wasn't Raven's natural hair color thanks to the dark roots slightly popping out of her head. Gar eyed Raven suspiciously before she admitted the truth. "If you fell for that, then you're an idiot."

"You didn't answer the question." Gar said.

"I'm not playing." Raven answered curtly, and Gar gave her a pout.

"But we were having so much fun playing!" Gar cried out, and Raven shook her head. "Fine, don't ask questions. But you should answer mines."

"Because I will immediately comply to your requests," Raven drawled sarcastically. "Ask all you want, but I'm not answering."

"Fine," Gar said petulantly, but he shortly forgot what he said when he asked her a string of questions. "Favorite movie?"

"The one in which you shut up."

"Favorite food?"

"Meat, the thing you can't eat."

"Favorite–"

"Stop," Raven interrupted, holding out her hand. Gar fell silent and crossed his arms and sulked. "I told you, I'm not answering any of your questions, so stop."

But before Gar could respond, both of their attentions were diverted to a group of middle schoolers, one of which had her birthday. "Happy birthday, Kara!" A blonde girl, who Gar assumed was Kara, blushed deeply and softly chastised her friends for being too loud, but before her friends could say sorry, the waiters greeted their table with a small birthday cake. The table instantly sang their greetings, and clapped afterwards.

The majority of the restaurant, including Gar, clapped their hands to fit the mood. Raven, however, remained silent and her face was devoid of expression. "You can have birthday celebrations in Pizza Corner?" Gar asked, watching the group of middle schoolers have their fun.

Raven shrugged, not knowing the answer as she never celebrated her birthday in said restaurant. "I don't know."

"Hey," Gar said, turning his head to Raven. "When's your birthday?"

Raven didn't respond, and continued eating her pizza in silence. Gar was confused by her lack of response, and tried edging out a reply. "Mines on May 3rd."

"Why do you wanna know?" Raven asked after a few moments of silence.

"Actually," Gar said. "I wasn't really interested but now since you don't really want to answer I'm interested."

"I'll tell you my birthday," Raven said. "If you make me laugh."

Gar was perplexed by her conditions. Making people laugh wasn't that hard, and Gar personally thought that he was extremely humorous. But once he saw Raven's vacant look, Gar's doubts instantly popped in. "Psh," Gar said, waving his hand slightly. "I'll make you laugh, alright."

And he would. Although the circumstances were quite petty, Gar himself wondered if Raven ever laughed, or has shown any emotion related to happiness.

The two remained in their seats, bantering about various topics that Gar didn't really understood. One topic, which was vegetarianism, had Gar fired up but before he could say anything more about the topic, Raven pointed out that it was late. With no choice, both of them agreed to continuing the project the next day in Gar's house.

* * *

><p><em>September 5 2014. Raven's house.<em>

Raven's father's door was closed, which meant that he was busy and Raven didn't need to greet him. The walk to Raven's room was silent, and once she entered her room she turned on her laptop and signed in to her computer account. She changed from her outdoor clothes to her indoor clothes, sat down in front of her laptop, and began reading her emails.

A few minutes later, she receives a Skype call from someone. _jasonxtodd calling_, the screen read. Raven sighed. Jason Todd was a sophomore, and strangely, one of her few friends. They met in Raven's Algebra 2 class when Raven was a sophomore and Jason a freshman. Both of them got unceremoniously seated next to each other, and got to a bad start. However over the course of time, the two gradually became tolerant of each other, to the point where they would talk about intellectual topics at lunch. The two weren't very 'popular' with the students at Jump City High, and therefore Raven and Jason stayed side by side throughout the ups and downs of their year.

Although Raven didn't share any courses or extra curricular activities with Jason, both still remained in contact thanks to the social networking of the generation. However their contact was usually in the form of text, rarely with calls. Jason knew that Raven disliked talking, so she was curious as to what was the purpose of Jason calling her. Raven reluctantly pressed '_Answer_', and was unamused when she saw his face show up at her screen.

"Hey turn on your camera." Jason instructed, and Raven ignored him.

"Why are you calling me?" Raven asked, but Jason refused to answer unless Raven turned on her video. Growling, Raven activated her camera and hoped that her scowl was enough to menace him.

It didn't. In fact, it made his grin grow wider. "Do you really think that you can leave me hanging like that?"

"Like what," Raven said, crossing her arms. "Get to the point, Jason."

"_Off to do some work with green hair_," Jason said in a monotone, and Raven instantly knew that Jason was mimicking the text she sent him. But before Raven could respond, Jason continued talking. "You texted me at four, and you're only online at eight."

"Get to the point." Raven repeated.

"Tell me, Raven," Jason drawled. "How did your date go with green hair?"

Raven was silent, and it took a few seconds for her to respond to Jason's question. "It wasn't a date." Raven said softly, and she could feel a blush forming up in her cheeks. Raven hoped that Jason didn't recognize her abrupt blush, but judging on Jason's wide smirk, Raven could tell that he did.

It wasn't much of a date per se, but to a stranger's eye it could've been interpreted that way. Raven never spent long periods of time with one person when working on a project, and she was astonished once she realized how easily Gar made time go by. _Time flies when you're having fun_, Raven thought to herself. _But was today really fun? Did Gar really made it fun?_

"Right," Jason purred, interrupting Raven's thoughts. "I'll let you remember how your date goes, but you still have to tell me later. Oh, and today…"

Jason went on and on talking about his day, but Raven paid minimal attention to him, her focus fully diverted on her thoughts.

_It was nothing_, Raven assured herself, but deep down she knew that she meant otherwise.

* * *

><p><strong>*ducks from incoming tomatoes being thrown from readers*<strong>

**School. That's all I'm going to say regarding why it took me forever to update. ****But now that I've got my schedule cleared up, hopefully updates aren't as sporadic. **

**Reviews keep me motivated, so I'd be extremely happy if you leave some feedback.**

**First person to review gets a 100 word excerpt of the next chapter...**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Next Chapter:<strong>_

_**"You're not ticklish?"**_


	5. Five

_September 5 2014. Mikron's house._

Joey Wilson hated Mikron O'Jeneus, and Mikron O'Jeneus hated Joey Wilson. It was only the worst of luck given in the world when they were assigned as partners for the English project. However, it wasn't some dark past story that compelled them to hate each other – funnily enough, both Joey and Mikron never acknowledged one another's presence until the English project. From then on, it immediately became obvious to both parties that they were destined to abhor each other.

Despite their unwelcoming differences between each other, both Joey and Mikron had at least something to respect from one another. Mikron understood sign language, which was great for Joey considering the fact that Joey was mute, and Joey knew a thing or two about technology which was great for Mikron considering the fact that Mikron's life highly revolved around technology.

"The stupid use of bluetooth to assist the stupid use of hearing aids," Mikron said, when inquired about the topic both of them would research, to which Joey scowled upon. "What?"

"_Too wordy,_" Joey signed. "_What about, 'bluetooth and hearing aids'?_"

Mikron rolled his eyes and gave a dismissive gesture. "Whatever, snotface, just type it in! I want to get over this dumb project so I can never see your face again!"

Sighing to himself, Joey typed in the title of the project and began forming an outline for the project. Both agreed to using animation for the video because none of them wanted to undertake the hassle of filming one another. Once Joey finished the outline, he loudly tapped Mikron's desk to divert Mikron's attention off his phone and to Joey's outline.

"I don't like it." Mikron said indignantly before returning to his phone.

Joey rolled his eyes and scowled. He tapped on Mikron's desk again to grab Mikron's attention and signed, "_Why?_"

"Other than the fact that my slug-faced grandmother could do better than this crud-piece, it's boring," Mikron began. "Look at it. '_Hello, we are Mikron and Joey and we will talk about bluetooth and hearing aids_'? No one will listen. I'm sure you pie-for-brains wouldn't listen to this too. Change it."

Joey looked at Mikron with a confounded look, before shaking his head no. "What do you mean, no?"

"_Wait_," Joey signed, before standing up to face Mikron. "_I have done my work and if you do not like it, maybe you should do the outline_."

"No, dumb-face!" Mikron said. "I'm busy with the presentation, because I'm the only one who can perform it!"

"_Fine_," Joey responded after a few moments of contemplation. "_I do not care what you think afterwards but I will do all of the video and you do the presentation. Besides,"_ Joey looked at the clock, which showed six in the evening. "_I do not want to stay longer._"

Mikron's face scrunched up and Joey almost expected an outburst, but to both of their surprise, Mikron just huffed and nodded. "Fine, just e-mail me the stupid video two days before the deadline."

"_Same with you and your presentation_."

xx

Unlike most people, Joey didn't hate the wait for a bus. In fact, it gave him time to think and reflect of what happened in the day. To Joey, he was an introverted idealist, and to be given the time to think of possibilities in the future based on past reflections was a privilege. The only time he minded waiting for the bus was when there were loud groups of people, or worse, someone who chewed gum really loudly.

To Joey's left was a young man with blond and green hair, and Joey couldn't help but feel immediate disdain for this man. It wasn't because of his looks, but rather how he chewed his gum. _Loudly_.

Because Joey couldn't chastise the man, he simply stayed calm and tried averting his focus to something else. However, his goal proved difficult when the man began conversing with him. "Hey," the man said, and Joey turned around with a contrived smile. "I kinda recognize you. Aren't you Kole's boyfriend?"

At the mention of the words _Kole_ and _boyfriend_, Joey immediately blushed. Joey and Kole was not dating per se, but he did have an undeniable crush on her. Joey immediately worried to himself that if it was obvious to a guy he never conversed, then it must've been obvious to Kole. Regaining his composure, Joey quickly signed to the man that he wasn't Kole's boyfriend, to which the man was confused.

"Um, yeah, I have no idea what you just did there," the man said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Joey, right? I'm Gar Logan."

Joey would've signed a '_Nice to meet you_' to Gar, but seeing how Gar didn't understand sign language, Joey simply smiled. The bus came, and Joey silently hoped that Gar wouldn't sit with him since it was hard for Joey to converse with someone who didn't understand sign language. To Joey's dismay, once Joey sat down, Gar plopped himself right next to Joey.

"Not much of talker, huh," Gar noted, and Joey reached for his pocket to grab his phone so that he could type out his thoughts, but his intentions were immediately cancelled when Joey remembered his phone was out of battery. Groaning to himself, Joey nodded to Gar. "Eh, don't be shy. Usually it's the new kid who's shy, but not in this case! Come on, say something."

Joey pointed to his throat and made a slashing movement across it, hoping that Gar would get the message. Unfortunately, Gar misinterpreted it. "Sore throat? Nah man, it's okay, I have some _Cepacol_ in my bag–"

Joey stopped Gar from reaching his bag and taking out lozenges that wouldn't even help Joey at this point. Joey began gesticulating movements that could possibly help Gar understand of Joey's muteness, however his efforts proved futile when the bus finally stopped at Joey's terminal and Gar still couldn't understand. Joey stopped trying, stood up, and smiled quickly at Gar before leaving outside the bus. From there, Gar was left irrefutably confused.

To pass the time, Gar took out his phone and began checking his notifications. He got three snaps from Victor in Snapchat, one text message from Kori asking if he'd like one of her bakings on Monday (to which Gar immediately knew to refuse), and one instant message from Raven asking if ten in the morning was an acceptable time to come. Ignoring the other messages he got, Gar quickly responded to Raven's, typing out a 'yes' followed with a smiley.

Once Gar knew Raven read his message, Gar immediately went on Google for advice on how to make Raven laugh.

_Funny jokes_, Gar typed as he thought of the possible dates Raven's birthday could possibly fall on. In the midst of it all, he asked himself _why_ did he find Raven's birthday so important to know, and Gar was about to find answers to his self-reflected question, but his thoughts were interrupted once his search for jokes was completed on Google.

_Totally making her laugh tomorrow_, Gar thought to himself, and he unknowingly smiled to himself imagining tomorrow.

* * *

><p><em>September 6 2014. Gar's house.<em>

"Hi. Um, is Gar here?" Raven nervously pulled the sleeves of her sweater to cover her hands. The stare from whom Raven could only assume was Gar's mother was unnerving, and Raven began picking at loose strands inside her sweater sleeve to pass by. After a few excruciatingly uncomfortable seconds, the woman smiled and unexpectedly hugged Raven.

"Honey, it's quite early!" The woman said with a smile after letting Raven go. Raven nodded slowly, eyeing the clock in the corner of the living room, which said it was ten in the morning. "But no worries, come in, come in! Gar's in his room, probably sleeping. Wake him up if you need to."

The woman lightly held Raven's wrist and pulled her inside the house. From there, Raven eyed the interior of the house – it was mostly devoid of decorations, and heavily filled with moving boxes and newly constructed furniture from a warehouse. The only ornamentation Raven could spot was a picture of young Gar with wholly light blond hair hugging a monkey. Raven continued scrutinizing every detail of Gar's house until the woman interrupted her thoughts.

"Come, sit down for a bit!" The woman sat down on the couch and urged Raven to sit down next to her. Once Raven took a seat, she was bombarded with the woman's chattiness. "I'm Rita Farr, Gar's mother. My husband, Steve, he's away for a business trip to the north. Now, enough about me. I would like to hear about you!"

"I'm Raven Roth." Raven said simply, hoping that her taciturn nature would prompt Rita to stop talking to her.

"Raven, beautiful name," Rita said with a smile. "I have to leave for work in a few, so if Gar still isn't awake, wake him up, alright?"

Raven nodded, diverting her attention to a door half-decorated with animal stickers. Rita noticed Raven eyeing the door, and chuckled to herself. "Yeah, that's Gar's room. I wanted him to stay away from putting stickers all over the door since it generates stains, but he's too stubborn to listen. Luckily I've stopped him from painting the door green."

"Oh," Raven said. She cleared her throat, uncomfortable with the chatter in the room. "Uh, yeah I sent him a text. But I'll wake him up for you."

Rita nodded, and her mouth formed a huge grin. "Normally I would be mad at my son for keeping a secret from me, but I suppose I'm too happy to be mad," Raven eyed her suspiciously, wondering what Rita meant. "Oh, it's been a while since Gar dated, I suppose. And you are quite the mystery here, but you're very beautiful. I'm glad that you and Gar are together, but if you do anything to hurt him–"

"Rita?" A groggy voice appeared from the corner, and Raven was relieved to see that it was from Gar. He walked closer to the couch, and his the corners of his lips turned upwards upon seeing Raven. "Oh, you're here."

"Gar," Rita said, standing up from her seat. "You never mentioned a girlfriend to me!"

"Well, yeah, because I don't have one–" Gar stopped himself when he realized the connection between his mother's accusation and Raven's perplexed expression. "Oh. Wait, no, Rita you're confused. Raven's not my girlfriend!"

"Really?"

"Yeah," Raven supplied, standing up to eye Rita. "I'm just here to complete an English project with Gar. We have to film a video."

"Ah," Rita's face looked slightly crestfallen, but Raven couldn't tell. "Well, have fun, yeah? Gar, I've got classes to teach until eight, so you're cooking dinner yourself, okay?"

Rita hugged Gar then turned her attention to Raven, mouthing a 'sorry' before hugging her. Once Rita finished her goodbyes, Gar walked to the door to lock it shut and turned to Raven with a smile. Raven, confused with Rita's assumptions, crossed her arms and looked at Gar with an unamused face.

"What?" Raven rolled her eyes.

"Didn't you tell your mother that I was coming over for a project?" Raven asked, and scowled when Gar shrugged.

"Eh, she knows now," Raven shook her head and took her backpack off, taking out a camera and a few sheets of paper. "Great, you brought your things! Wait, my tripod's in my room. Let's go!"

Gar's clumsy attempt to tug on Raven's sweater to drag her into his room failed as Raven lost focus and dropped her camera onto the floor. Fortunately, the floor was covered with a soft carpet, so there was little to no damage inflicted on the camera, but that didn't stop Raven from grimacing at Gar.

"Oops."

"Let's just get it over with."

xx

Four in the afternoon, and Gar and Raven was finally finished with editing their video. All was left for them was to export it into an external hard drive, which required nothing but patience. Hence, Gar was left with the time to fulfill his deal – make Raven laugh.

"Rae–"

"Don't call me that."

"–Ven," Gar said cheekily, to which Raven turned her attention from the computer screen to Gar's goofy expression. "Have you ever seen the movie Constipation?"

"No."

"That's because it hasn't come out yet!" Gar laughed to himself and Raven groaned while opening the presentation files for the project. "Come on, laugh. That was funny."

Raven hummed to herself. "Yes, that was very funny. Ha ha," Gar frowned at Raven's lack of reaction and lightly pushed her shoulder. "Don't touch me."

Gar sat in silence for the next few moments, thinking of another joke that would possibly cause Raven to laugh. Once he thought of one, he immediately jumped in his seat and started pulling on Raven's sleeve. "Why shouldn't you buy velcro shoes?"

"Oh, why, Garfield, please enlighten me." Raven deadpanned, as she placed a few more aesthetic details into the presentation.

"Because they're a rip off!"

Silence followed, and Gar huffed to himself. "Gar, what do you think of the presentation?"

"It's not as great as having you laugh," Gar jokingly said, and Raven shook her head, telling Gar to be serious. "Yeah, whatever, it's great. Now laugh for me."

"Wait, there's a problem," Raven said, with slightly wide eyes that caused Gar to sit straight. Raven looked at Gar for a few seconds, before returning to the presentation. "I must've left my laughter at home."

Gar rolled his eyes and began slumping in his seat, however he sat straight again when he had an epiphany. "You made a joke! You! You can joke!"

Raven looked at Gar as if she was offended. "Just because I don't laugh at your jokes doesn't mean I don't have a sense of humor," Raven returned to the computer screen, however she quickly turned to Gar to say something again. "And to measure my sense of humor based on my response of _your_ sense of humor is insulting."

This caused Gar to pout, and he continued his time looking at Raven looking at the project rubric. However, Gar's attention began to divert away from Raven to a watch in the shape of a dolphin-carved ring on his bed desk. He stood up and headed for the ring to wear it, and once he obtained it Gar walked to Raven and tapped on her shoulder frivolously, which caused Raven to glare at Gar. "What time is it?" Gar asked, with his hand wearing the ring cheekily placed behind his back. Just before Raven could answer, however, Gar pulled out his hand and shoved the ring near Raven's face. "It's time for you to laugh!"

"It's four fifty-one," Raven responded, and she returned back to the monitor. Gar groaned to himself and tossed the ring across the room. Gar plopped himself onto the bed, and continued looking at Raven, thinking of a way to make her laugh. His train of thoughts were interrupted though, when Raven stood up and approached him. "Are you hungry? Do you mind if I order food?"

Gar stared blankly at Raven's impatient glare, grabbed her wrist, and pushed her onto the bed. Before Raven could get off, however, Gar started pinning Raven down with one hand, and started tickling her sides with the other. Gar was laughing while tickling Raven, however Raven's face remained placid. He eventually stopped, when he realized that Raven wasn't responding the way he wanted to – or even, she wasn't responding at all. "You're not ticklish?"

Raven hastily removed herself off the bed and faced the wall. "I'm ordering pizza." Raven declared and quickly ran out of the room. Gar was silent over what just happened, but once he processed what happened, Gar smiled to himself.

_She was blushing_, Gar thought, grabbing for his phone to check his notifications. _She was definitely blushing_.

* * *

><p><em>September 6 2014. Kitten's house.<em>

"Is it me, or the sophomores this year are just the worst?"

Kitten looked up from her nails, uninterested in what her friend Gemma had to say. Personally, Kitten never cared about anyone outside of her grade, unless she deemed them cool. "Why do you care?" Kitten asked, for the sake of keeping up a conversation.

"This guy nicknamed _Fang_," Gemma spat, and Kitten rolled her eyes at her friend Selinda, who was sniggering. "Totally wrecked my model in Chemistry. I worked so hard, on that stupid project! If I were you, Kitten, I'd put him in the freak list."

"Not a junior, don't care," Kitten declared, and she eyed her friend Gemma. "Are you finished with your part in English?"

Gemma nodded, and sat next to Kitten to look at Kitten's nail artwork. "That's totes awesome. Can you do my nails?" Gemma asked, fanning her face with both her hands. Kitten rolled her eyes, and Gemma retracted her hands to her sides. "I guess that's a no."

"Wait, both of you are done with your English project?" Selinda asked, to which both Kitten and Gemma nodded. "How?"

Gemma smiled coyly and crawled next to Selinda. "Video animation. We worked on it the weekdays."

Selinda gawked at both of them, which caused Gemma and Kitten to smirk. "I'm jealous. My partner's this girl named Helena, and it's like _I'm_ doing all of the work," Selinda complained, while scrolling through her Facebook feed. She stopped scrolling once she saw something that caught her attention. "OMG, Gem, look!"

Gemma immediately looked closer to Selinda's laptop and laughed hysterically. "She's cray."

"What is it?!" Kitten said, standing up from her bean bag and moving closer to Selinda to get a closer view. "Oh my gosh."

"'_Don't ever waste my time, you prick_'?" Selinda read aloud from her laptop screen. "She's so easy to laugh at."

"So much emotions for a freak," Kitten noted, nudging Selinda to move. She quickly pressed the 'Like' button, and looked at Selinda with a smirk, whose face was full of surprise. "What?"

"Why did you like her status?!" Selinda exclaimed, to which Kitten just shrugged. In the corner of Kitten's eye, she could see Gemma quietly giggling to herself. "Now that freak Jinx is going to think I _sympathize_ with her or something. As if I would ever be stood up for a date _that_ pathetic."

"Relax," Kitten said. "Unlike if you want. Whatevs, she'll obviously know that _you_ liking _her_ status is a sign of mockery. Duh."

"Guys, do you think that Wally actually likes her?" Gemma asked, and Kitten and Selinda's attention immediately turned to Gemma's question. "He did seem pretty upset when Jinx left him."

"Please," Kitten responded, and Selinda put on a face of incredulousness. "Do you really think that someone like _Wally_ would fall for someone like _Jinx_? I'm sure it was a dare or something, and he's just upset that he couldn't ruin the date himself."

Gemma still wasn't convinced. "Oh, what if Wally does like her though? And then what? He asks her to be his date to your party?"

That immediately caused both Kitten and Selinda to become abruptly silent. Only when Selinda quietly piped in did the silence go down. "Even so, Jinx is on the freak list. You shouldn't be worried about having someone like her attend the party."

"It's not whether or not Wally will bring her to the party because _obviously_, she can't come," Kitten said menacingly. "It's about how in the world does Wally end up liking a freak like her. I mean, what kind of poison does Wally have to ingest to actually have him like her? Jeez."

Gemma eyed Kitten questionably, but she shrugged her thoughts away. After all, Gemma never really cared about the freak list, but she was just interested in having to know more about the freaks for her own entertainment. "Okay," Gemma said slowly. "Whatever. Move on. Time for the grand question, though. Kitten…"

"What?"

"Who are you planning to take as your date to your party?"

That question immediately prompted Selinda to look at Kitten with curious eyes. Kitten looked between her two friends with a bored look, and sighed before responding to Gemma's question. "No one."

"What?!" Gemma and Selinda exclaimed simultaneously. "What about Roy?" Gemma asked, and Kitten scoffed.

"I went with him last year."

"What about the guy you went with in freshman year?" Selinda asked.

"He moved away, remember?" Gemma said.

"Chillax, both of you," Kitten said, interrupting any possibilities of a tirade between Selinda and Gemma. "I _choose_ not to go with anyone because I simply don't want to."

Gemma and Selinda eyed each other suspiciously before asking why.

"Okay," Kitten said, preparing to explain her viewpoints. "Okay. On November 2nd, my birthday, think of this – if I go with someone, then the attention would immediately divert to me _and_ that someone. But if I go _alone_, then everyone's attention would be on me, _only_ me. Do you get what I'm saying."

It took Gemma and Selinda a while to process what Kitten said, but once they did, they immediately showed signs of approval. "Oh. Yeah." Gemma said, and Selinda immediately butted in. "That's so smart. I totally agree."

"What about you losers, any date?"

"Well," Selinda said with a sly smirk that indubitably caused Gemma to feel uneasy. "If Roy's available…" Selinda trailed off, immediately getting on her laptop to talk to Roy.

"That's so not fair!" Gemma said, to which Selinda responded with a bigger smirk and Kitten simply looked at her nails. "Well. I don't know who I'll go with. I'll just go alone, maybe."

"Sure," Kitten said in a scathing tone. "Decide to go alone right after _I _announce that I'm going alone."

"Wait," Selinda said, and Gemma looked at her with a hopeful expression. "What about that black-haired guy in your swim team?"

"Oh, Garth?" Gemma asked, and Selinda shrugged. "Well, I can ask, I guess. But I don't really know him that much – the coach tends to separate genders."

"What about his friend?" Kitten asked, and both of her friends eyed her questioningly. "Green hair. Gar."

* * *

><p><em>September 6 2014. Back to Gar's house.<em>

"...That's why I'm a vegan. Can you imagine eating your own friends?"

Although Gar was mostly unfocused and filled with unexpected moments, Raven had to admit that he was a good storyteller. Because Raven refused to play twenty questions with him while eating their ordered pizza, Gar began rambling about past failed experiences when he was a child. From there, Raven discovered three points about Gar: 1) Gar is from South Africa, and was adopted there by Rita and Steve. 2) Gar was raised with animals, so it was only natural for Gar to be heavily inclined to animals, hence his environmentalism and veganism. 3) In the future, Gar wanted to be an actor like Rita, or a zoologist – in essence, he wants to inspire people.

Knowing these three points made Raven realize that Gar wasn't that much of a bad person. Sure, she was guided by her irritated nature to judge Gar negatively, but once she got used to his presence, Raven was drawn to his general quirky disposition and she didn't know how to deal with that but to be cold and detached as usual.

"Yeah," Gar said after sipping his soft drink. Raven noticed how the straw was filled with bite marks on top when he placed it on the table. "I don't usually talk about my past to people, to be honest." That caused Raven to look up from her pizza slice and look at Gar's thoughtful eyes. "But it's just my childhood. So whatever, really. And it's just you."

_What is that supposed to mean_, Raven wanted to ask, but she shrugged it off. Raven assumed that since she was quite laconic, Gar wasn't scared about the possibility of having Raven spread around his past. "I can read six languages," Raven confessed, and she bit her inner lip right after she done so because she couldn't think of any possible reason as to why she just told Gar something about herself. To her dismay, Gar's ears seemed to perk up in interest and Raven reluctantly continued. "English, German, Latin, Romanian, ancient Sumerian and Sanskrit."

"Whoa," Gar said in astonishment, and Raven lowered her head in bashful nature. "I only know English and high school Spanish. When did you learn all of this?"

"Childhood," Raven said. Silence followed, and Raven knew Gar expected her to talk more, but in all honesty, Raven didn't know how to continue the conversation. "Are you ready for the presentation?"

Gar's face fell upon Raven's lack of conversation skills, and he shrugged, which gave Raven an uneasy feeling. "Eh," Gar responded, and for a second Raven thought that he was let down by Raven, however her thoughts diminished when Gar's face broke out into a huge grin. "I'll be ready when you tell me when your birthday is."

"Sure," Raven deadpanned, and Gar's eyes immediately twinkled. "It's today."

Gar's jaw dropped, and it took a while for him to compose himself but once he did, he immediately moved closer to Raven, placed his hand on her shoulder and whispered: "Liar."

Raven's eyes widened at how close Gar was to her, and when Gar retracted back to his seat, Raven immediately regretted not wearing a hoodie as she was blushing madly. She cleared her throat to settle herself down, and responded. "How can you tell I'm lying?"

"Ha!" Gar exclaimed, pointing a finger to Raven. "I couldn't. I just said you were a liar to see how you would react. And you just admitted you're lying so… Score 1 for Gar, Score 0 for Raven."

"Alright," Raven said after finishing her final slice of pizza. "It's not today."

Silence followed. "So… When?"

"You still have to make me laugh, you know that, right?"

Gar groaned. "But it's so hard! You don't laugh at any of my jokes and my jokes are _genius_!"

"Totally genius that I forget to laugh," Raven drawled, and immediately smirked when she saw Gar's unamused expression. "Do you know why I set the deal related to me laughing?"

"Because you secretly like me and my jokes, and you just want an excuse to listen to me talking all day? Please. Just say so!" Gar said jokingly, and winked at Raven for effect.

"Disgusting," Raven said, and Gar pouted in response. "It's because you can't make me laugh. No matter how hard you try."

Gar was not convinced. "Sure," Gar drawled. "I'm sure you'll laugh because of me at one point. Whether I'm trying or not."

"Maybe if you publicly humiliate yourself, sure," Raven said blankly, and was confused when Gar stood up and headed out for the door. "Where are you going?"

"Out to 'publicly humiliate' myself," Gar said, with finger quotes to emphasize his thoughts. Raven rolled her eyes and immediately followed Gar. "What?"

"The deal, Garfield, was for me to laugh," Raven said, and Gar nodded as if it was the most simple thing in the world. "Not for me to feel secondhand embarrassment."

Gar shrugged. "You will laugh at my jokes one day," Gar said determinedly, and Raven raised her eyebrows. "You know, you might be laughing at my jokes deep inside your heart. It's bad to bottle up laughter, I think."

"You think a lot of ridiculous things, including but not limited to you actually having the possibility to make me laugh."

Raven waited for a response, but was met with Gar's blank face. As Raven's frown grew deeper, Gar laughed to himself. "Oh sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of you laughing at my jokes in the future."

"Ugh!"

* * *

><p><em>September 8 2014. Jump City High.<em>

After English class, in which Gar and Raven presented their video and received mostly positive feedback about their content and teamwork, Gar ran into Joey. After meeting Joey, Gar messaged Kole to ask about Joey, and in a moment of extreme embarrassment, Gar realized that Joey was _mute_. After that realization, Gar felt that it was only appropriate for him to apologize to Joey. Luckily for Gar, Joey was by his locker. He quickly ran to Joey and started rambling.

"Joey in the bus a few days ago I did _not_ realize that you were mute I just thought that you know it was something else like maybe a sore throat or you were shy or something I didn't think that you were actually, a full-fledged mute, so I'm really sorry about that please don't hit me."

Gar squeezed his eye shut in preparation of a possible blow to his face, but it never came, and Gar slowly opened his eyes to see a smiling Joey. Joey pulled out his phone and showed its screen to Gar, which read: _It is fine. :) Talk to you later._

Joey closed his locker and headed to his class, but not before waving goodbye. Gar nodded to himself and quickly ran to the changing room for PE class. Luckily, everyone was still beginning to change into uniform and Wally was also rushing in. Gar waited for Wally to approach him, but instead Wally retreated to a corner in the changing room. Perplexed, Gar headed to Wally after hastily changing his clothes. "Dude, what's up? Long time no talk!"

"Not in the mood," Wally said abruptly, and tossed his bag into an empty locker. Wally walked out of the changing room with a grumpy looked, and Gar quickly followed out, only to see a bunch of his other classmates stretching. The unit Gar's PE class was currently on was track and field, something that he didn't mind, but again, something he was too lazy to do.

"Alright, ten laps around the court, now!" The coach shouted out loud, to which the majority of the students groaned. Gar paid no mind to the coach's request, and instead tried nudging out a response off of Wally who was still in a testy mood. "Now!"

Half of the class started running while the others took a steady jog. Unfortunately, Wally was part of the half that ran, so Gar immediately followed him.

"I forgot," Gar managed to say in between panting. It was their third lap, and due to the extra speed Gar placed himself on, the fatigue quickly built up. However, Wally, who was maintaining a quick and steady rate, seemed unfazed. "That you're a runner. Slow down! Please!"

To his surprise, Wally stopped running. He quickly turned to Gar with an upset face, and started growling. "Stupid, idiotic, moronic, _demonic_– Kitten! That's what's up, Kitten!" Gar stared at Wally with wide eyes and immediately responded.

"What, wait, what do you mean?" Gar asked, and Wally stared blankly at Gar before taking off again. Gar groaned, and took a heavy breath and started catching up to Wally. "Yo," Gar said, trying to grab Wally's arm but Wally seemed to increase in speed by then. "Dude, tell me, what happened!"

Wally didn't stop running, but he did slow down for Gar's sake. From there, he started talking. "Maybe for some demonic reason, Kitten was there when Jinx agreed to go out with me. From there, she just came up in the spot as if _I_ was playing a prank on Jinx. As if I never wanted to go out with her. Can you imagine Jinx's wrath?"

"Imagining it," Gar said with scrunched eyebrows. "So now what?"

"Now, I don't know," Wally stopped his pace and pulled his hair out of frustration. "She's been ignoring my calls, my texts, everything! I hate Kitten. I hate her so much." Wally continued pacing back and forth, which made Gar nervous seeing that the coach was eyeing them suspiciously. To Gar's relief, Wally stopped his paces but he immediately blew up out of frustration. "If that stupid blonde skank thinks I'm going to her party, she's thinking again!"

Wally resumed running, however he was swearing under his breath. Gar, unsure of what to do, started running in his own pace, leaving Wally alone. If Gar remembered correctly, Jinx had Calculus while both Gar and Wally had PE. By that knowledge, Gar planned something that would either break Jinx's trust for Wally even further, or mend it back together.

The bell rang, and Wally was still in a grumpy mood, so Gar didn't feel compelled to stay back and wait. After changing, he immediately ran to Jinx's locker. From there, Jinx scrutinized Gar's disheveled look and generally unfocused temperament. "What do you want?"

"On a level of one to ten, how mad are you at Wally?" Gar asked with wide eyes, and Jinx immediately slammed her locker shut and walked away. "Jinx!" Gar exclaimed, running up to Jinx and successfully holding her back.

"I do not know you," Jinx answered evasively, trying to break free from Gar's grasp. "Let go of me!"

"Just answer the question, Jinx."

"Eleven! Twelve! You know what, I don't even want to talk about him anymore, just, whatever!"

Gar sighed, and gently released Jinx's wrist. To his surprise, Jinx stayed, with a petulant expression on her face. Jinx was looking at the ground with her arms crossed, and Gar knew that Jinx wanted to say _something_, but didn't know what. "Try thinking of the attempts Wally performed just to have you agree to a date," Gar said, blurting out whatever he could think of to help Jinx reevaluate her anger towards Wally. "Pretty genuine and pathetic, right? Don't you think that if really _was_ a prank, his attempts to grab your attention would be more… I don't know… better? As if it was really thought out?"

When Jinx lightly shrugged her shoulders, Gar continued. "Or when he burst out in happiness when you finally agreed to go out with him. If it was a prank, he wouldn't react _that_ happily," Jinx looked up from the floor and looked at Gar with a worried expression. "And try remembering his reaction when Kitten showed up on your date. _Not_ the reaction you would get after a successful prank."

"Fine," Jinx said, rubbing her eyes. "It's not a prank. It's just…"

"What?"

"It's too good to be true, really," Jinx confessed, and upon seeing Gar's confused expression, she continued. "Some random, _decent-looking_ guy who I've never talked to suddenly shows interest in me. It's easy to assume that their intentions aren't genuine."

"But his intentions are–"

"I know. Do you think it's idiotic of me to make such a big deal out of this?"

Gar immediately shook his head no. "No. No, of course not. Look I'd be pretty upset in your position right now. Dude, just thinking about you makes me upset. But there's only one way to solve this. You talk to him."

Jinx sighed to herself, and she crossed her arms once again. "I've pushed him away way too hard that he might not even want to talk to me anymore."

"Dude, no," Gar said, remembering Wally's attitude during PE class. "You should've seen him in PE, all in his man-period or something. Uh… no offense."

Jinx took a moment to process what Gar has told her, and once she did, she slowly nodded. "Thanks, Gar," Jinx tried to smile at the cheeky young man in front of him but what came out was uneasy pursed lips. "I'll, uh, I'll talk to him. Right now, in fact."

"That's great! Yeah, he's probably outside the changing room," Gar said, and the two of them awkwardly stood in the same position, slightly fidgeting with an equally awkward smile. Gar and Jinx continued the same position until Gar broke off the silence. "Go, before you lose him."

"Right," Jinx started running away from Gar, but stopped halfway through to look back at Gar with a smile. "Thanks." Gar saw her mouthing.

"You're welcome." Gar mouthed back, and Jinx nodded, and continued running to the changing rooms. Gar quickly took his phone out of his pocket to text Wally, hoping that Wally was still around the changing rooms.

"_where are you"_ Gar texted Wally. He breathed a sigh of relief when Wally instantly replied: "_I'm in the changing rooms, why?_"

"_just stay there,_" Gar typed back, and put back his phone into his pocket, hoping for the best for both Jinx and Wally.

xx

Gar's afternoon nap was interrupted by the loud ringing of his phone. Groaning, Gar snatched his phone off of his bed desk and immediately picked up the call. "Unless you're Steve or Rita," Gar growled into his phone. "You can screw yourself over."

"Wait," a voice said, and Gar instantly knew that voice belonged to Wally. "Is there a female version for _casanova_?"

"You talked to Jinx?"

"Nah, she talked to me," Wally said with a tone that indicated happiness. "Long story short, we made up and we're going on an _official_ date this Friday. And it's all thanks to you!"

"What did she say?" Gar asked, adjusting himself to sit down on his bed.

"She just told me you met her after school to make sense of what happened," Wally said, and Gar nodded to himself. "Either way, it's all thanks to you, so I just wanted to say thank you so much, man. Life saver."

"Yeah, it's no problem," Gar said. "Look, I'm gonna go return to my nap so if you don't mind…"

"You're gonna be the best man!"

"Bye."

* * *

><p><em>September 9 2014. Jump City High.<em>

"I am particularly pleased with generally everyone's performance today!" Mrs. Prince announced as she stood up from her seat of the judicial panel. The judges used for the English project were teachers that Gar didn't have (the psychology, IT, and drama teacher), so Gar wasn't too worried of a hindsight bias coming out. Raven did have one teacher who was on the panel, however it was the psychology teacher who Raven felt was in okay relations with her.

Overall, Gar had to admit that their presentation went really well – Gar's exuberant personality complemented Raven's cool demeanor, and every quirk that they said or presented contributed greatly to the presentation. Gar only hoped that Raven felt the same, but judging by the lack of insults Raven struck at Gar, Gar assumed that Raven thought the presentation was a success too.

Gar looked around his class and saw that everyone looked mostly pleased with themselves. He looked at Isaiah and his partner Toni, who both just found out that they attended the same elementary school back in Rose City. Their topic dealt with the importance of topography, and how modern-day students can contribute to topographical studies. Once Isaiah and Toni finished their presentation, Gar flashed both of them a thumbs-up, to which Isaiah reciprocated after Gar and Raven finished their presentation.

To Gar's surprise, Kitten and her partner Gemma didn't do horribly bad. On the contrary, if one were to dismiss their overly irritating valspeak, then one had to admit that both Kitten and Gemma did a pretty good job. Both girls discussed the health benefits of shopping, accompanied by a well constructed animated video showing what parts of the body benefitted from shopping. Gar, however, couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling he had when he presented with Raven, as Gemma kept on staring at Gar with a blank look.

"Alright," Mrs. Prince began, clapping her hands together to ensure the attention of the class. "I should've told you this before the project began to give an incentive, but I suppose it's too late now. Either way, all of the judges score will be added up to a total of forty, and to the pairing who scored the highest will… Drumroll please," Gar looked at a pairing who began drum rolling on their desks. "Thank you, boys… Well, let's just say the winner will be exempt on one of any _test_ I will assign throughout the year. Mind you, I say _test_ not _exam_, so none of you will ever have the chance to run away from final exams."

The class was surrounded with gasps and murmurs. Gar looked at Raven with expectant eyes, who returned the look too. Isaiah looked at Gar with a sly smile and pointed to himself, mouthing that he'd be the winner, to which Gar dismissed him. At the corner of his eye, Gar saw that Kitten and Gemma stood straight, as if they were ready to win the prize.

Mrs. Prince smiled to herself, who looked at the other teachers for confirmation and in turn, nodded back. "With a score of thirty-six… The winner of this project is…" Gar fidgeted in his seat, but stopped once Raven placed her hand on his leg, prompting Gar to stop. "The psychological effects of video games, by Raven and Gar!"

The class erupted in applause, with only a few exceptions like Kitten and Gemma who sulked in their seats. Smiling to each other, Raven and Gar stood up to thank the judges, and in a fit of excitement, Gar ran up to the panel and hugged everyone. "Thank you!" Gar said after subjecting the teachers into bear hugs.

Mrs. Prince smiled, and returned to her seat. "Your performance with Ms. Roth was detailed, interactive, informative, and most importantly, well-matched. Congratulations to both of you."

Gar turned to the back of the class, where he saw Raven sitting with a slight smile on her face. Smile growing upon seeing Raven's smile, Gar loudly said the first thing that popped out in his mind: "I guess we're two peas in a pod!" What happened next was unexpected.

Raven laughed. Not enough for the whole class to recognize, but enough for Gar to notice. The bell rang, and Gar immediately ran to Raven and grabbed her shoulders, prompting her to stand up. "You laughed!" Gar said excitedly, in which Raven blushed in response. "No denying it, you laughed! You laughed, you laughed, you laughed!"

"Fine, I did–"

"Raven Roth," A voice appeared out of no where, and both Gar and Raven turned to see Kitten's malicious face, with her friend Gemma by her side. "Well played."

By the sound of Kitten approaching Raven, many students stayed back to see what would happen next. Confused by the situation, Gar let go of Raven, and tried diffusing the tension in the air. "Thanks Kitten," Gar said slowly, and Kitten raised an eyebrow at her. "We've gotta go."

"Was I talking to you?" Kitten asked sharply, which caused Gar to fall in silence. "Raven, you and I both know that _I_ deserve that award. I took a look at the score sheet, and Gemma and I scored a thirty-five."

"So you're saying I'm a point better than you," Raven deadpanned, and Gar's attention immediately diverted to the gasps from the audience. "And I presume you're angry about that?"

Kitten fumed, and to everyone's surprise, she threw a random notebook to the wall. "How does it feel, freak? Always taking the attention away. Guess what, Raven, no one wants to have you in the attention!" Kitten said, and Gar took note of how Raven gritted her teeth. Gar wanted to approach Raven, but before he could do so, Kitten shouted at Raven again. "Stay away from my party!"

"Stay away from my life." To this, Kitten groaned in annoyance and turned to walk outside. Ushering the other students to get out, the audience followed Kitten and Gemma out.

"Raven–"

"November 2nd," Raven said silently, and Gar looked crestfallen at how Raven responded. He approached Raven and gently touched her shoulder, but Raven moved away and started walking out. "That's my birthday."

Gar was left in silence and confusion. _November 2nd_, Gar thought to himself, trying to think of the significance of the date. He took a seat, and looked at the ceiling, thinking of any clues to help him figure it out.

"Wait," Gar said, sitting up straight. He took his backpack and took out a familiar, messily opened pink envelope that a certain someone gave him before. Sighing deeply, he took out the letter out of the envelope to read it again and closed his eyes shut once he finished. "November 2nd," Gar said, looking at the envelope again. "That's when Kitten's birthday is."

* * *

><p><strong>*still avoiding tomatoes being thrown at me*<strong>

**Wow, it's been a long time! (nervous chuckle)**

**Announcements:**

**1) I changed my pen name, from Irey West-Wayne to Miss Paint (in commemoration of Homestuck updating from a yearlong hiatus. If anyone cares)**

**2) I don't think I ever stated Kitten's birth date, but if I did, then scrap it, it's officially November 2nd. (I planned it to be on October 25 but I changed it)**

**3) Expect the 6th chapter to be posted _before_ Tuesday (GMT +8 time). I'd put a long passage as to why I was so busy, but it all shortens up to school and personal life. **

**First one to review gets to ask any question about the story (Though I have the right to refuse a question and let you ask another)**

**Love,**

**Miss Paint! (I've had this story with _three_ different pen names!)**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Next chapter:<strong>_

_**"We can share the same birthday party!"**_


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